


Revival

by CloudyBlueSkies



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Force Visions, Friends to Lovers, Hallucinations, Jedi Training, Light Angst, Mental Instability, Multi, Music, Overcoming Trauma, The Force, Trauma, altered timeline, former jedi, slow burn i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-03-07 13:57:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 34,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13436193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudyBlueSkies/pseuds/CloudyBlueSkies
Summary: Maia has been haunted by the dark side since her life went up in flames ten years ago. Unable to move past what happened, she has been trapped by her demons but with the new awakening, everything is changing for Maia and the Resistance.





	1. Chapter 1

“What are you two up to?” Poe asked, looking under the small transport ship BB-8 was beeping frantically next to. The blonde woman who was laying under it had a dreamy quality about her as always. Her amber eyes were far away as she looked up at the bottom of the ship. Usually Poe or Jess ran interference when she started rewiring Nien’s x-wing or any other mischief she was capable of on her good days, but BB-8 had caught her this time. General Organa was mum as to why she allowed the woman to live on the base, Poe suspected they were related but could never find any proof.

Today, Maia didn’t seem to be doing anything potentially dangerous, just laying under the transport like it was a shady tree. He wormed his way under and laid next to her, BB-8 beeping in slight disapproval. "What color is the sky today Dameron?" She asked.

“Just about as blue as the oceans on Traxam.” 

Her fingers trailed on the bottom of the ship, drawing shapes in the dirt that coated the outside, "Hm, I’ve never heard of that planet. Do they have ever-flying birds that can never land because the planet is all ocean, so they must lay their eggs by dropping them into the sea and praying?”

“They could build big sea nests.”

“But without land, what are the nests made of?” This was a game they played occasionally, Maia preferred imaginary worlds to this one. On Traxam, Maia explained, the ever-flying birds dropped their eggs into the ocean, that were then eaten by sea-dwelling fish people, which fed the birds when they died, completing the circle of life for this ocean world.

"If I didn't have to land-" Poe started to say but was cut off by his communicator beeping. He was being paged to the command center by General Organa. “ I have to go, I will see you later Maia.” He pulled himself out from under the shuttle.

“I’ll come with you.” She followed him out. BB-8 rolled around them, glad they were finally out from under the ship. He produced a small brush and dusted off Poe's boots and calves

Poe dusted the rest of himself off and shook the pebbles out of his hair, “You don't have to, this is probably boring Resistance stuff.” Maia had never cared about what was going on in the Resistance before this, or at least not that Poe had noticed. He wondered why she was suddenly interested in going to the command center.

“Life can’t always be ever flying birds and merpeople. Boring stuff must exist too.”

Maia often harped on a theme, all of her imaginary worlds had to have balance and she always claimed her capricious actions were just 'keeping the balance.' Poe failed to see how reorganizing storage rooms or repainting his X-Wing fit into that category, but he had learned to just shake his head and go along with it. 

He couldn’t say no to her so he offered her is arm and escorted her to his briefing. General Organa didn’t comment on her presence in the command center, but a few of the other Resistance leaders threw her dirty or confused looks as she moved around the room. Poe wondered what everyone knew that he didn’t. He had gotten snippets of her story over the last few years; she was from some poor trading station on the edge of the outer rim, she had nightmares that caused her to wander the base at night, she whispered a long list of names he didn't know. But beyond those few facts and several abstract concepts, Poe was at a loss on her.

Maia didn't pay attention to what he was being told, she wandered around the command center and eventually ended up talking with Lt. Connix about what she was doing. Now this was the most interest in the Resistance he had ever seen her take before. What had gotten into her?

General Organa detailed his mission to Jakku, finally they had a solid lead on where Luke Skywalker had disappeared to nearly ten years ago. He had visited Lor San Tekka before disappearing and the man said he had a map to the Jedi master.

"He's a ghost." Maia finally spoke up, looking away from Lt. Connix's work. "He's been a ghost for many years now."

General Organa turned, "Are you saying Luke's dead?"

"No, not at all." She held the General's gaze for a moment. 

"Any, hints you could give us Maia?" The older woman prompted her.

"I hear the sky is as blue as the oceans on Traxam." Maia smiled sweetly

Poe grinned, but hid it as soon as General Organa turned back around to him, "You leave in the morning Commander Dameron." She dismissed him and went over to Maia, who had returned to pestering Lt. Connix. "Maia, come with me." She led the younger woman out of the command center and into her personal office. 

Maia had been in Leia’s care for the last ten years. She had spent five years on New Alderaan, supervised by caretakers who could keep her under control. With the rise of the First Order, Leia had feared for her safety and brought her to the Resistance base. It had been rough for Maia at first, but she had adjusted. Although her continuing erratic behavior often put her at odds with many members of the Resistance. Luckily, the Black Squadron had adopted her as one of their own and made sure she kept out of trouble when they were on base.

Leia wished she knew more about what haunted the woman, but Maia never spoke of it and her memories seemed to be under lock and key in her mind. All she had was a general idea of what had happened to her from Luke, and even that was bare bones information. “You know you shouldn’t be in the command center.”

She shrugged, “It wasn’t my decision to make.”

Leia held her head in her hand for just a moment, “No, I don’t suppose it was.”

“Something is coming. On the edges, I feel it. The song is changing again.”

“Is it Luke?”

Maia shrugged again, “I’m not sure. It could be a mermaid for all I know.”

“Well, let’s hope not.” Leia picked up her datapad, “You’re free to go, that’s all I wanted to talk about.” Maia paused and then threw her arms around the older woman’s shoulders. “What is this about?”

“The creature in your chest was about to escape. His tapestry of your tears was about to run out."

Leia took a deep breath and smiled, Maia tried and that’s what counted. She patted Maia on the back, “Go make sure Dameron is doing work instead of messing around with that droid of his.”

“Yes ma'am.” She saluted Leia and bounced out the door, Leia’s chuckling following her. 

In the last few weeks, Maia had noticed the shadows retreating. This wasn’t unusual as the darkness ebbed and flowed constantly, but it felt different. She was almost convinced that everyone around her wasn’t illusion created by the dark to drive her crazy, they were all probably real. 

There was no way the dark could have invented someone like Poe Dameron. He was definitely real. 

But she wouldn’t tell him that. There was no need for him to think he was even more special than he already thought. 

Leia was real too, but in a different way. She was part of the music that surrounded everything, but so quiet Maia strained to hear her. Her melody had been mournful for a long time and it only added to the horrid symphony that had played in her head. 

For a long time, the song in Maia's head had been discordant, all clashing brass and sliding scales, enough to make her want to scream and never stop. But something was growing, underneath the cacophony, something that was changing the song back into what she had known as a child. Harmony and peace was returning to the galaxy, and within herself, at last.


	2. Chapter 2

Poe wouldn't give into them. There was nothing the First Order could do to him to make him give up BB-8 and the Resistance. He could withstand torture, he had been for hours now. He could make it through with enough bravado, enough stubbornness.

He had not been prepared for Kylo Ren invading his mind. There was no amount of training that could have stopped the force user from sifting through his memories. The only thing he could think to do was to think about flying, the rush, the joy, the thrill of being in the air and in control of his life. Poe tried so hard to hold onto that feeling of flying.

_His first flight in his mother's A-Wing._

_Seeing his X-Wing for the first time._

_Passing all of the Academy tests with the best scores anyone had ever seen._

_Flying for the Resistance and knowing that he was doing good in the galaxy, like his parents before him._

He fought against Kylo Ren sifting through his memories. He felt the rush as if he were flying, and just for a moment, his mind slipped. In his memories, his X-Wing landed and Maia was waiting for him, hands on her hips and a big grin.

Kylo Ren seemed to latch onto these memories and he couldn't stop all his memories of her and BB-8 rising to the top of his mind. He yelled in defiance, this monster couldn't have his memories of her _. He couldn't have her._ Fighting back against Kylo Ren caused pain to shoot throughout his entire being.

_Maia frowning at him the first time they met and insulting his flying skills._

_The first time she hugged him when he got back from his mission._

_Him catching her graffitiing the Black Squadron's X-wings and helping her write insults in her native language on Snap's T-75._

_Maia stuffing an entire Beylan death pepper in her mouth, then_ _crying and cursing because it was too hot._

_Laying under the transport shuttle as she drew swirls in the dust and talked about birds that would never land._

_Maia sitting on the floor of the astromech bay, cradling BB-8 and making fun of his name, the biggest smile on her face._

From there, there was no stopping Kylo Ren from seeing Poe give his droid the map and sending him into the sands of Jakku. Poe collapsed back, his breathing strained, pain still coursing through him. There was no way he could have stopped him. He needed to get back the Resistance and warn them.

* * *

Leia awoke to the sounds of Maia sobbing on her bed, wrapped in her blankets like a cocoon. She tried to calm the woman, but she was inconsolable. She was babbling about Poe and pain and the old King.

"Are you adding him to the list?" Leia asked quietly.

That seemed to sober her up a little, "No, not Jameron."

Leia smiled, she remembered a much younger Maia giving rhyming nicknames to her son at the Jedi temple within five minutes of Ben arriving. She remembered the relief she had felt when she saw there was someone at the Jedi Temple who wasn't uptight. In her heart of hearts, she wondered what her son had done to Maia.

Maia never spoke about Ben, didn't even seem to know his name, but Leia knew that her son was to blame for her state of mind. Luke had brought Maia too her immediately after his Jedi Temple had burned. Maia had still be covered in blood, but none of it was hers, her only physical injury had been a cut on her lip.

Luke and Maia had been devastated at the destruction that had been wrought upon their home, and they had both run away from it, in their own way. Luke had entrusted Maia to her care and left, disappeared to find the first Jedi Temple. Maia had retreated from reality as much as she could.

_"_ _The Force is moving through her like a breeze through an open window. She can't control it anymore, there's nothing I can do to help her."_ Luke had said, the night before he disappeared, _"There is nothing I can do to help anyone."_

Leia had been furious with Luke at first, he had run away and left her with this broken woman and a son who was trying to take over the galaxy. But over the years, Maia had grown on her. She regretted that she wasn't there for Maia in the years she had been on New Alderaan. She would just add it to the long list of regrets she already had.

She had failed Ben, and she was determined not to fail Maia.

A small droid rolled out from under Maia's bunk. It seemed to be a repurposed maintenance droid that had been painted blue and white. It beeped at her and nudged her leg insistently. Maia leaned over and picked up the small oval droid. A small attachment rubbed her cheek comfortingly.

"Who this?" Leia asked.

"MSE-3, Tel gave him to me."

Maia was known for scooping up smaller droids and singing to them so a small maintenance droid was perfect for her to leave the other droids alone. In her first week here she had managed to convince all the astromech droids that they needed soft music playing while they were charging. Leia had found her cradling BB-8 like a small child while Poe tried to convince her to give up his droid.

Leia ran a tentative hand through Maia's hair. She wondered if she should have tried to help Maia differently. She was whimsical and warm most of the time, but when she wasn't it was like living with a nightmare. Leia would never forget every communication that read 'Maia almost burned the house down today' or 'Maia stabbed herself, not sure if it was an accident or she thought she wasn't real again' from her time on New Alderaan. Recently, incidents like that had been getting few and far between. But there were days where Maia would break everything she could get her hands or, or not get out of bed, or hide in the vents for a week. But she couldn't find it in her heart to change the girl or make her face her demons.

"It's very. . . cute."

Maia put the droid down, "The old King is returning."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Terrible. And beautiful."

The old King was one of her many antagonists that lived in her mind. It had been awhile since Maia had mentioned him. She laid her head down on Leia shoulder and let out a long shuddering breath, "Terrible and beautiful." She repeated.

* * *

Kylo Ren ripped his mask from his head as soon as he entered his chambers.

Maia was alive.

She had survived, he had left her for dead on that planet and not given her another thought. He shouldn't be surprised, if Skywalker had survived then she would have too.

Maia had been his first failure in Snoke's eyes, he couldn't let Snoke know that she was alive now or he would face a punishment worse than death for this. The pilot knew she was alive, he was going to have to be disposed of quickly. His memories of her had been bathed in warm light that he had not felt in years. Her behavior in all his memories were baffling. . .

What had his mother done to her?

His fists clenched, no, he couldn't get angry now. Snoke would know he was angry and know why. He had to bury his knowledge of her deep within him so he would not arouse suspicions of his continued failure.

He was the Master of the Knights of Ren and failure was not an option.


	3. Chapter 3

_She dreamt of a hill, it was always a hill. But this wasn't her hill, this one was made of sand and metal. Heat prickled at her skin as a sun beat down on her. She was certain she had never been here before._

_Quiet, familiar beeps made her turn around, but the light that was behind her blinded her. She held a hand over her eyes until they adjusted. She could see the outline of a BB unit following a figure made of pure light through the hills and valleys of sand._

_The figure stopped for a moment and the droid beeped a question._

_"It's nothing." A girl's voice said. "I thought I saw something."_

_Her voice radiated throughout the force, soft and strong. It was her, the melody that had been missing. She was growing louder and louder with each day, Maia could almost feel her awakening on the horizon._

_The Queen was coming._

* * *

Poe woke up suddenly. The last thing he remembered was stumbling out of the transport he had managed to steal on Jakku and onto the tarmac of the D'Qar base. They must have brought him to the med bay.

"Hey Flybird, you're awake." Maia quickly removed her hand from his.

He blinked away the gunk in his eyes. She was sitting by his bed, radiant as always. His heart lept, there had been one moment of doubt on Jakku where he wondered if he would make it back. But now that he saw her, he couldn't believe that he had ever doubted himself, "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you to wake up, nothing unusal. Go ahead and go back to sleep."

He sat up and felt his wound, it seemed to be completely gone, "Did you miss me?"

"I'm glad you're back. The Resistance wouldn't like losing their ace pilot." She smiled ruefully, "And I wouldn't like losing my friend."

He wanted to tell her, that his memories of her had been so bright and strong that they had overpowered his memories of flying. Although, they had also lead to him revealing BB-8's location to the enemy.

She held his gaze for that moment, then her face softened, "Did he hurt you?"

"Who? Kylo Ren? Nah, he was a big softie under that completely terrifying mask."

Maia let out a half-sigh half laugh and touched her head to his hand, "If he's a big softie then you can call me an Ewok."

"You are pretty cuddly, BB-8 says so all the time."

"Where is BB-8?"

He told her what had happened since she had last seen him. He glossed over the interrogations, particularly the parts that had involved her.

"You just left him on a desert planet by himself!" She exclaimed, "He could get buried!"

"He's a smart droid, he will stay safe until we can get to him."

An alarm went off, fighter pilots were being called to Takodana, BB-8 had been found. "I have to go." Poe sat up.

She sighed, "And I will wait here, a good little girl, waiting for her man to come home from the war as the snow falls outside reflecting the coldness in my soul."

Poe paused, "Is there more to that?"

"No, go be a hero Poe Dameron, ace pilot." She kissed his forehead.

* * *

Maia was in the back of the crowd in the command center as they talked about the Starkiller Base. Her eyes were red, that explained why Poe hadn't seen her since he had returned from Takodana. She had always been sensitive; she had probably heard what happened to the Hosnian system and had been crying over the lost lives.

She was silent as they talked, but she seemed to at least be listening, her focus entirely on the holograms of the battle plan. As soon as they were dismissed, she slipped out of the room. He thought about following her and making sure she was okay. But he had to get to his X-Wing and be a hero.

Finn set down the box Chewie had handed him and started shoving the explosives in his bag.

"You're looking for the girl."

Finn turned and saw a small golden haired woman looking at him. "Do you know where Rey is?"

"Her highness is awake and safe in a tower, but  _he_  is near, he will burn you."

_Who the hell is this?_ Finn supposed he shouldn't be surprised about the people associated with the Resistance now that he had met Maz Kanata. "What are you talking about?"

"Kid we gotta go." Han pulled up when he saw the girl. "Maia, what are you doing here?"

"Waiting in the snow." She said like it was the most obvious thing in the galaxy.

Finn looked around for snow and Han chuckled. "Either you've gotten saner or I've gone crazy but you make more sense to me now."

"Take me with you."

"No, we can't babysit you Maia."

"I can protect you from. . ." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Kylo Ren."

Han had an expression like he had just swallowed the worst knock-off Corellian whiskey. Finn thought he was going to send this woman away, but he sighed and rubbed his neck, "Alright, get in quickly before Leia sees."

"Adventure!" Maia raised her arms above her head in triumph and boarded the Falcon.

"Finn!" Poe yelled, "Was that Maia?" He stopped next to his new friend. He had just caught sight of her celebrating and boarding the old ship.

"Apparently she's coming with us?"

"No, no she's not."

Poe started walking up the ramp but Maia stood in his way with her hands on her hips, "I'm tired of waiting for everyone to come back and tell me stories of their adventures, I'm going to have a story this time and it's going to be better than anything you have ever told me."

"I just don't want you to get hurt or. . ." His voice choked, he couldn't even say it.

She cupped his face with her hands, "Oh my sweet forever-flying bird, you cannot land now nor worry about us water dwelling merpeople. Go lay your eggs and keep flying."

"I'm a forever-flying bird?"

"Don't ruin it." She patted his cheek, "And don't tell Leia where I am."

He hesitated, biting his lip, he still didn't like any of this but there was no stopping her when she got that look in her eye, "You sure you can do this?"

"This is the most sure I have been in a long time." Her admission was soft, only for him.

He didn't know what made him trust her, but he did. He hugged her tightly, "Don't do anything stupid, don't get seperated from the group." He loosened his grip and looked down at her, "Keep Finn safe for me."

"Can do." She beamed.

Poe let go and walked back down the ramp. "Keep her safe for me." He patted Finn on the shoulder as he passed.

"Does she make sense to you?"

"Not at all." Poe responded and jogged back to his X-Wing.


	4. Chapter 4

Maia was digging through various drawers in the common area on the Falcon, "What are you doing?" Finn asked.

"Searching." She tossed a bunch of clothes on the floor and sifted through them, picking things up and then tossing them away.

"I don't think you should be going through their stuff." He started picking up what she was throwing around and folded them.

She tossed a shirt onto his face and laughed, "Don't worry Stormie, he doesn't fold his clothes anyway, he'll never notice."

"Why are you like this?" Finn muttered to himself, kneeling to access the drawers better.

"It's better than screaming all the time."

Finn stuffed the clothes back into the drawer, "Well, you aren't wrong, I guess." He leaned back on his heels, "How do you know Poe?"

"He rescued me from boredom, a long time ago."

"Cool cool, I rescued him from the First Order, no big deal."

"Yeah, people do that all the time." Maia agreed with him, no hint of sarcasm in her voice. He was a little taken back at her genuine tone, but then she grinned wickedly and laughed at him, "I've been trying to get that jacket off him for two years and you did it in two hours, I'm impressed."

Finn looked down at the jacket, "Thanks I-" He looked back up and saw she had the same big grin on her face, "No no, it wasn't like that. I thought he was dead so I took it to shield myself from the sun."

"Mhmm." She nodded, clearly still teasing him.

"Did Poe say something to you about me?" His palms felt a little sweaty as he asked.

"Oh, we had a long conversation about the  _handsome_ man who saved the Resistance's  _best_ pilot. He just wouldn't shut up about your  _eyes_  and just how  _good looking_ you are." She over exaggerated every word and he crossed his arms.

"I see what you're doing here. You like Poe."

Her face turned pink, "You like Poe!" She threw a pile of clothes at his chest.

Finn caught them, "Mhmm, yeah, no, you can't turn this around on me. You have a huge crush on Poe Dameron."

"Shut up." She hit his arm, "Don't tell him."

"Your secret is safe with me Maia."

"You aren't too bad Stormie." She admitted.

"It's Finn."

She scrunched her nose, "Nah, Stormie." Her hands finally found what she was looking for. She slid the worn black poncho on over her head. It was a little too small but it still covered her arms.

Han walked in and stopped short for the second time that day, "Where did you find that?"

Maia made eye contact with him, and she saw him, a young boy with black hair standing right where she was, wearing the same poncho. "Sorry." She pulled it off quickly.

"You'll probably need it, the surface of the planet is cold." Finn said, trying to cover up the large pile of clothes Maia had created.

"We're making our final approach, we'll be there in a few minutes." Han turned around, oblivious to the mess, and went back into the cockpit. Finn followed him.

Maia clutched the poncho in her hand, the fabric held the memory of the last time Han Solo had seen his son. The sadness in held threatened to overwhelm her, but she was shaken out of it by the Falcon dropping out of lightspeed and crashing towards the planet. She jerked forward and cursed at the boys in the cockpit in Frentian, her native language. Chewbacca roared at her, apparently, he could understand her.

The boys came out, "Put a jacket on, we need to get a move on." Han said.

"I don't need a jacket, the Force will keep me warm."

Han hit the button for the ramp, remembering his time on Hoth very clearly and knowing full well the force would not keep her warm. As the cold air hit them, Maia shrieked and ran around the corner. "We have to go now."

Maia peeked around the corner, "I can't."

Finn approached carefully, "You want a story to tell Poe, remember? The story is out there. In the cold." She nodded, grabbed the jacket Han held and followed them out into the snow.

Maia stayed quiet while they argued about how to get things done. The Force was moving and swirling around the base. The queen was down there and she was growing more powerful by the second. Finn started leading her around by the elbow through the base, her feet seemed to be taking her elsewhere.

"We could use your help kid." Han broke her out of her trance. He knew this would happen, she was too spacey for missions like this.

Maia looked at the shiny woman. She gently took her helmeted head into her own hands. "What are you doing?" The woman demanded.

"You remember them, your family. You were older when they took you, but they didn't take your brother. He had a limp, a broken leg that never healed right on your backwater planet. They still talk about you, they miss you." She could feel the woman's confusion, the deep buried pain caused by mentioning her family. Her guard was lowered enough to be suggestible, "Drop the shields, please."

The woman's hand was a little shaky as she pressed the buttons to lower the shields.

"Thank you." She kissed her domed forehead.

"You are the most terrifying woman I know." Finn said.

Phasma seemed to snap out of it. "You can't be so stupid as to think this will be easy. My troops will storm this block and kill you all. I will kill  _you_ myself." She indicated Maia.

"Well that's not very nice of you."

"How are we going to find Rey?"

Han looked at Maia, "I think I know how."

They let her lead them through the base. Han had his doubts about Maia, but she acted like she knew where she was going. She paused in the corridor, looking out a window, "There."

"Where?" Finn turned to Maia, "She can't be out there."

Maia put her finger on the glass, Rey was climbing up the side of the wall. "This way." She pulled him along.

The girl stopped as they ran into each other in the hall. She was just a bright as Maia had thought she would be and more so. She was frozen, basking in her light. Maia touched the girls' shoulder, hoping it wouldn't burn.

Rey jerked out of Finn's arms in surprise. She tried to back away as the strange woman enveloped her in a hug. Over the woman's shoulder Rey mouthed a question to Finn  _who is this?_

"Just go with it." Finn said.

"Your Majesty." The woman bowed after she let Rey go. "I am Lady Mermaid, this is The Storm and you know Sirs Lonely and the Hairy One."

"Sir Lonely?" Han asked.

"Shut up Hairy One, I'm in charge of this rescue mission and we have an adventure to finish." She flashed the girl her best impression of Poe Dameron's roguish grin.

Rey looked at Finn in alarm. Finn shook his head, "It would take too long to explain."

"Let's go." Han pulled them forward. "Chewie and I will set the explosives, we will be less noticeable with just two of us."

Finn was relieved that Rey seemed just as baffled by this woman as he was. She followed them dutifully, doing whatever they asked her to do, mostly keeping watch as they dismantled important systems.

"Ben!" the voice cut through her very being. It was a name she had not heard spoken in over ten years. The doors opened, shining light on the two figures on the bridge.

"Your son is gone."

_His voice._ They were far away, but she could hear him like she was right next to her. He didn't know she was there, not yet. Terror gripped her, bringing her to knees. Finn knelt beside her, asking her if she was okay, but his voice was drowned out by the memories.

_The burning temple, filling the air with acrid smoke._

_The screams of children as they tried to run._

_The blood on her hands as she tried to save little Hanlon._

_And Ben Solo, standing over her with his lightsaber._

She heard a cry and it snapped her out of her memories. She felt another soul become one with the Force. "Han Solo." She whispered. She looked up and even though he was far away, she could see his eyes, his confusion and the split in his soul. The names were spilling form her lips, the names she had been saying since the temple had burned and Ben Solo robbed her of her life.


	5. Chapter 5

Finn grabbed Maia and hauled her up. They ran out into the cold, Finn kept a firm grip on her upper arm. It was going to be rough getting back to the Falcon with Maia stumbling as much as she was. The sound of a lightsaber made them stop.

Maia had fallen in the snow as soon as they paused and was muttering and clutching her head. The only weapons they had were blasters and Finn knew how well those would work against Kylo Ren. His hand brushed against the lightsaber he had been carrying since Takodana. Something in him said to give it to Maia, then she wouldn't be weaponless.

"We aren't done yet." Kylo Ren said. "Han Solo can't save you."

Ren blasted Rey back and that seemed to snap Maia out of it. She crawled to the girls' side and gave Finn a look. He made a small motion with the lightsaber in his hand and she shook her head and closed his hand over it.

"Traitor!" Kylo wasn't sure exactly who he was talking to in this moment.

Finn turned and faced Kylo Ren with his grandfather's lightsaber

Maia watched them fight, and stood up. There had to be something she could do. She walked towards them carefully, she could fight him this time. It wouldn't be like last time.  _I can do this, I can do this._ She repeated to herself with every step she took. They weren't dead yet, she could protect them.  _It won't be like last time._

There was a cry and the lightsaber flew out of Stormie's hand and right at her feet. She heard his pain, it stabbed her right to her core.

She picked up the lightsaber. It sang a soft swelling song of balance, it was a song she knew well. She looked up and met his eyes for the first time in a long time. He was older and taller. She wondered how she looked to him, if she still looked like the young woman who glowed gold in the sunlight, at the top of a distant hill.

Kylo Ren turned off his lightsaber and held out his hand to her, "Maia, bring it to me. I spared your life once, I can give you a better life than what they are giving you now."

"What color is the sky today?"

"It's black." He stated the obvious, as per usual.

"Black like it was when you left me with blood on my hands and a hole on my soul that I've never been able to fill. The sky used to be golden and so was I." Tears were filling her eyes. Her grip on the lightsaber was becoming painful but she couldn't bring herself to push the button.

" _What have they been doing to you? Why are you like this?_ " His voice was strained with anger. He beat at his wound then held out his hands again, "Maia, come to me."

They had been here before. She remembered now.

_"Come with me Maia." He held out his hand._

_"Ben, help me."_

_"I can't leave here without you Maia. He's asking for you."_

_She looked down at the child in her arms. He was fading into the Force, she couldn't help him. "You killed him."_

_"I had to kill him."_

_The darkness swirled around him and tried to invade her. It whispered promises of revenge to those who harmed her, power beyond the limits of the light. And Ben Solo._

_"No, you didn't." She hugged the body of the dead boy, "they all could have lived."_

_Ben tried to separate her from the boy but it was like the Force couldn't move her. He grabbed her shoulder and yanked her away. She started hitting him and he felt everything she was feeling, loss, betrayal, anger, hate. It swirled around inside her and it was destroying her. "Maia, let go." He grabbed her wrists to stop her from hitting him. She slipped on the mud and fell, taking him with her._

_She was still fighting him. He straddled her and forced her to be still. "Maia, stop struggling and let me help you." But she was crying and he could read her mind, she was breaking. She was far more fragile than he had thought. "Maia, I can help you."_

_"Kill me."_

_"No, Maia, I am supposed to bring you to him."_

_"I'm already dead." She struggled beneath him._

_He tried to stop her, from fighting him. He tried to just knock her out but he couldn't. She was fighting him with every ounce of her strength, but she wasn't strong enough. He knocked down all of her walls, everything that was holding her together. He drew back, he hadn't meant it to go that far._

_There was nothing left of her worth taking with him._

She remembered what he had done, the things she had been hiding from herself for so long, the part of her she denied. She looked down at the lightsaber. She should be able to push the button, to attack him, end this, end everything that he had done. But she couldn't, she wasn't supposed to.

"You used to be a king, but the sword has changed allegiance." She held out her hand with the lightsaber, "Only the one true king can pull this sword form stone."

Kylo reached for the lightsaber with the Force, but it wasn't budging. Next, he tried to move Maia, but she was equally unmovable. He cursed, this shouldn't be possible, what was she?

The lightsaber flew from her hand and right into Rey's. The force of Rey's pull on the saber had made her stumble to the ground, scraping her palms on the dirt under the snow. Kylo Ren seemed to have forgotten she was there as he charged at Rey.

She stumbled to her feet, nature was collapsing around them, even the Force wouldn't be able to hold this planet together for long. She had to find Stormie and get off this planet. The fear rose in her throat and she had to fight it down. She could save them, she had to save them.

Stormie had a deep gash in his back. She placed her hands on him and started healing him. This would take too long, the creature in his chest was destroying faster than she knew how to heal.

Her heart wouldn't stop beating in time with the Force as the light and the dark clashed around her. The fight had moved far away from them but she could feel it like it was happening above her head. She paused and yelled in frustration, her head touching Finn's chest. It was too much, this was all too much again.

Something reached out and touched her. It was the queen, she was asking for help. Maia felt her heart calm and she sent the queen every ounce of strength, every scrap of knowledge she could remember from her training. It wasn't nearly enough, but she hoped that Rey could use it better than she had.

The ground shook beneath them, Rey stumbled out of the forest and fell to her knees beside them. "He will be fine." Maia assured her. "Chewie is coming."

True to her word, the Falcon appeared in front of them. Chewie carried Finn and Rey supported Maia as they ran onto the ship.

"Can you heal him more?" Rey asked when they were on the Falcon and safely away from the exploding base.

Maia didn't ask how she knew. "No."

"Why not?"

"It's not my choice to make." She whispered. The Force assured her that Finn would be just fine with out her interference.

"Who are you?"

"When I have a good answer to that, I will tell you."

Rey did not like that answer, she stormed off into the cockpit and left her with Finn. She touched his forehead tentatively. He would be fine, she was sure of it, she just didn't know how to make sure Rey knew too.

* * *

Rey followed Finn and Chewbacca out of the Falcon. Maia flew past her in a flurry and threw her arms around an X-Wing pilot who was waiting for them with an older woman. He picked her up and twirled her around as she chatted to him excitedly. The woman watched them with a small, sad smile and then turned to Rey. Rey didn't know this woman, but she felt her sadness and knew, just knew that she needed a hug as much as she did.

Maia ran into Poe like a crashing X-wing, practically jumping on him and throwing her arms around his neck. He took her momentum and spun her around. She was talking at lightspeed and he couldn't quite follow what she was saying. He was beyond relieved that she was back alive and unharmed. His heart swelled and threatened to burst out of his mouth as he kept his arms around her as she talked.

"Let's go check on Finn and you can tell me everything." He led her inside. She was barely in the base before she collapsed against a wall. "Maia!"

"I'm fine Poe, just tired. Stormie was missing a lot of things and the creature in his chest was trying knots in everything."

"Let's get you to bed."

She waved him off, "I can do it myself, go check on Stormie, he'll know if you aren't there."

"Fine." He helped her up and made sure she was on her way before going to the med bay.

* * *

_She was at the top of her hill. Today the sky was moss and lava swirled together with clouds of dark brown eyes._

" _This is what you dream?"_

_The Old King's eyes were missing but he looked around as though he could see. Part of his face was missing, the red half, not the blue half._

_"Well, this is disturbing."  
_

_"As the king of disturbing I thought you would like it."_

_He smiled half a smile, "Maia, I can make these dreams go away. Come to me."  
_

_"With the saber?"  
_

_"No, just you. Your connection with the force, it's even more than I ever thought it was. You can't just shut it off, can you? I want to help you."_

_"Are you sweet on me?"  
_

_"You haven't changed, have you?" His voice was soft and cloying._ _"You always were funny. A funny Jedi, who would have thought?"_

_"I see what you are doing, I see things more clearly than you think I do. This isn't my decision to make and it's not yours either."_

_His face morphed, it became disfigured, elongated, part of his skull was missing. He spoke with a different voice, raspy and ancient, "I had you in my clutches once girl, you will be again soon."_

She woke with a start. The creature he had morphed into, the monster that had haunted her, he was back. The shadows started creeping in on her in the already dark room. They whispered, they promised and laughed. They tried to sing as sweet a song as she had known as a child, but it just sounded like screeching strings to her. She covered her ears and yelled for it to stop, but it was in her head.

_It's in my head. It's not real, it's in my head._

The door opened and Leia came in, "Rey is about to leave to find Luke. Do you want to go with her?"

The shadows retreated as soon as Leia entered the room.  _She is real_ Maia thought firmly and with as much conviction as she could.

"Maia?"

"I. . . don't know. I don't think it would be a good idea." The monster was still haunting her, he couldn't go near Luke. The Force was silent on Luke, as if it also didn't know what to do about it's lost Jedi either.

Leia placed an arm around her, "If that's what you want, you don't have to go."

"It's for the best if I stay here."

"I'm sure Poe will appreciate you sticking around." Leia had a hint of teasing in her voice.

"Not if I repaint BB-8. I always thought he would look good as kind of a drab brown."

Leia chuckled, "You don't have time for that now. We are evacuating the base, you are on the shuttle with me, grab your clothes, the Raddus is in orbit waiting for us."


	6. Chapter 6

Maia grabbed the small bag she kept with her things in case of evacuation. She followed Leia to the shuttles and saw Poe firing up his x-wing. She quickly diverted her path and climbed up the ladder to talk to him.

"Where are you off to Flybird?"

"Usually people call me flyboy." Poe was flipping switches on his console.

"I'd think you'd prefer flyman?" Her nose scrunched as soon as the words left her mouth.

Poe smiled as he flipped a few more switches. "I'm going up to protect the cruiser and serve as a distraction if the First Order shows up."

"You are very distracting."

Poe looked over and saw her grinning at him as she rested her chin on the side of his ship. She was beautiful. "You're very distracting." He managed to stutter out.

A faint pink blush appeared high on her cheeks. "Flybird this is not the time."

"I might be flying to my death." He leaned over closer to her.

She laughed, "I might believe that someday, but not this day Poe Dameron, the ever-flying bird." She leaned back, "Not this day."

Poe grinned and closed the hatch. He was circling the cruiser when it hit him that they had been flirting, like, almost normal people flirting. Maia was wonderful, she always made life fun for him. She was always the first to hug him after a successful mission, or an unsuccessful one. And remembering her during his interrogation. . . He always denied himself that he wanted more from her.

But he let himself want, just a little.

Maia's face was pressed to the glass, watching the X-Wing. She kept to herself, X-Wing time was Poe's private time. Leia sat next to her, "Did he tell you his plan?"

"The usual, snark, flash and a little bit of dash."

Leia smiled, "I remember when he joined the Resistance. He was young and talented and very full of himself. But he's learned."

"He's still learning."

She laid a hand over Maia's, "Are you doing okay? Rey told me what happened on the planet."

"Everything is fuzzier, or clearer, maybe, it looks like how you see it."

"Ben offered for you to go with him."

"I am supposed to be here."

"I hope you want to be here, not just because the Force tells you to be here."

Maia laid her head on Leia's shoulder, "Thank you for taking care of me, and not changing me.  _He_  would change me and I don't want that."

"I will never make you do something you don't want to do." Leia promised, kissing the top of her head. She had never helped Ben, just tried to force him into being what she wanted him to be. Maia would be different.

"When will her Highness return?"

"Soon, with Luke."

They both felt a sense of abandonment when it came to her brother. Maia was wanted to go with Luke but he had just left her alone. Leia thought it was strange Maia hadn't wanted to go find him, but it was best not to question her.

Leia's communicator beeped, the First Order had arrived and the evacuation was almost done. She patted Maia's hand one more time and went to command the Resistance.

* * *

Poe led Finn to get clothes. While Finn changed into some of his clothes, he looked around for Maia. He found her crying in a maintence closet, she got like this when she was too close to death. He went to hug her but she pushed him away. "Maia."

She shoved him out of the closet, "This is your fault." She shut the door in his face.

Then Leia slapped and demoted him.

He was not having luck with women today.

Maia wiped at her eyes. So many were gone, but she couldn't do this every time. She had to get a handle on herself. She could feel  _him_  approaching. But his presence didn't fill her with dread as it once had. She was scared, yes, but she could manage it this time. She could feel his intent, his conflict, the monster that plagued them both.

She felt his hesitation. Then his anger.

The air was knocked out of her chest.

_Leia._

Her feet were moving before her mind could catch up with what was happening. She heard someone calling her name and felt them following her. The door to the command center was closed and the entire room was gone.

Someone pulled her away from the door and saying her name. Arms enveloped her but they felt constricting rather than comforting. She struggled out of them. It was Poe, it was always Poe. She could see the hurt in his eyes.

Leia was gone. She turned from him and went to the window. Debris floated around the ship, debris and the bodies of the Resistance leaders. Maia felt her chest constricting and she looked up at Poe and she could feel the same thing was happening to him.

Leia wasn't gone.

Maia felt it and looked back out in wonder. Leia was moving towards them, the Force guiding her back home. Poe let out a yell of relief and ran to the door. Maia stayed back and watched as Leia was carted away. Poe went to her, "She's fine."

She took an unconscious step back when he walked to her and he stopped. He took a step forward and she took another step back. "Maia." His voice was soft and confused. She didn't know what was going on, but she didn't want to see him right now.

She turned and followed Leia. She knew Poe was following her, he felt lost and was just following her because he didn't know where else to go. The crew was called to a meeting on the secondary deck. She didn't need to be at that so she stayed with Leia.

She tried to reach out to Leia, but she was unconscious, trying to get to her might hurt her. Poe came in, "Is she awake?"

"Of course not." Her answer was far sharper than she meant.

"What's going on with you?"

She shook her head, "I should have gone with Rey. I could have stopped this but I didn't. It would be better if I just wasn't here." The pain in her chest was stabbing at her heart. She didn't know how to deal with this. She could have reached out, stopped them from firing, done anything but nothing. Maybe she would have been more useful with Rey.

"No one could have stopped this Maia. What makes you think you could have?"

"There is a lot I haven't told you." She said quietly.

Before he could ask any questions, the door opened and Finn entered with a small woman he did not know. They told him their plan to save the Resistance. He looked back at Maia, she wasn't looking at them but that didn't mean she hadn't been listening. She didn't say anything so he had to take it that she was complicit with this plan.

* * *

"Maybe you should trust Leia." She said quietly when he came back from ensuring Rose and Finn had escaped the Raddus.

"Leia is unconscious."

Maia gave him a glare worthy of the General. "What color is the sky today?"

"I don't have time for these games right now."

Her lips tightened into a line, "Fine."

"I'm sorry Maia, there's just a lot going on." He rubbed his face and leaned back.

"Of course."

He started talking about how he was afraid for the Resistance and didn't trust Holdo. As he kept going on he realized Maia was only half listening to him and giving clipped one-word responses. She was still angry at him. She finally got up to leave once he was done talking.

"Maia, wait." He touched her back lightly and she stopped. He pulled her into a hug. He was sorry, for whatever it was she was angry at him for. Nothing seemed to be going right anymore. She looked up at him, their noses brushed and he froze. It was that sweet moment, that rush right before you knew what was going to happen for sure. But he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers, he just couldn't.

Maia shoved him away, surprising him yet again. "You think I'm broken, like he does."

"Who thinks you're broken?"

"The old King said he could fix me. Do you want that?"

"I don't know who that is but I know I don't want you anywhere near him. You don't need to be fixed."

He reached for her but she took a step out of his reach. "But I don't know what I'm doing, is that it? That because my holes and gaps, the creature in my chest weaves my choices, I'm broken and wrong? That you can't love me because I'm broken?" She wasn't crying but he could see the start of tears in her eyes.

"Maia you aren't broken." He tried to convey his honest belief that she wasn't broken, but she was having none of it.

"But you want me to be golden and and and  _balta!"_ She spat out the last word like poison in her mouth.

"I don't know what that means!" Poe yelled back. She turned and walked into the General's private quarters "Maia!"

But she closed the door in his face again.

Yesterday he had destroyed Starkiller base and today he couldn't even kiss a girl.

* * *

Maia curled up on the bed. This wasn't her room, but she didn't really have one on the ship. Poe made her so mad. Tears started to escape from her eyes.  _No, no not right now._

She pulled herself up and took up a meditation position. Usually this was too scary for her, but since facing down the old King, she felt a little stronger now. Whatever the Force had to show her, she could handle, she told herself. The Force was an old friend, greeting her and wrapping her up like a blanket. The two sides, light and dark weren't there, just the balance. The creature in her chest that weaved tapestries of her emotions stilled and settled. Clarity came to her for a brief moment, but with it, the visions of what she had seen that night.  _Fire. . . darkness. . .screams. . . death._

She jerked and fell off the bed. The tears were already going down her face. She hit her head against her knees. Why couldn't she just be normal again?

"You need control, or lost, you will be." A strange voice said.

She looked up and the green goblin was sitting on the bed. This was perfectly normal.

"I can't control what isn't mine."

"Like you, I once thought. If the force controls you, lost you will be."

She studied him for a long moment. She had learned of the Jedi Masters who could appear like this after they had died, this must be one of them. "How do I stop this?"

"You, asked this long ago, should have. Hmmmmm?"

"Been afraid, I have."

The goblin tapped her head with his cane, "Caused fear in you, darkness has. Find balance, you must."

"You are a strange Jedi master."

The goblin giggled as it disappeared.

Maia sequestered herself for the rest of the day. She knew she could never dedicate herself to the Jedi Order, but that didn't mean she had to be useless. She could make up for her past mistakes, she could protect them. She could be strong again, strong enough to face down both sides of the Force if she had to.

* * *

"Wake up Dameron." Poe looked up and saw Maia, smiling softly. Was all forgiven?

Where was he? "No!" He lept up and hit the glass.

Leia explained the plan and he slumped in the seat. This was why everyone was angry with him. He acted without thinking, risking everyone's lives. There would be no Resistance if they were all dead. He walked over to Maia, "I get it, I'm sorry."

"The Resistance isn't a ship, it's a heart." She touched his chest lightly.

"You are making more sense lately."

"Don't get used to it." She smiled ruefully.

"I don't think you're broken, Maia, I never have."

She nodded, "I know, I was just angry, because _I_  think I'm broken, I've been broken for a long time. You deserve better."

"Maia-" He started to say, but she turned her head away from him.

"He's dead."

"Who's dead, Maia?" Poe asked cautiously.

"Snoke, he's not there anymore. He's not. . ." Her voice faded away as she looked around. Snoke wasn't coloring her world anymore. The creature that had lived in her chest for so long floated away and she felt, empty somehow. The darkness he had created in her had been coloring her vision for so long, she wasn't sure what the real world looked like anymore. Leia had risen at her words and was making her way towards her.

She turned around to speak to Poe but he was gone. She was in a red room, a room that she had only seen in her nightmares.

The light and the dark were swirling against each other so powerfully in this room, her knees weakened. In the middle, there was a lightsaber floating in the air, suspended between the two opposing forces.

"Maia!" The darkness roared and it rushed to her. The light responded and stopped it. In the space between them, it was still and quiet. Except for the song.

The lightsaber was singing to her, the same song it sung on the planet. It was soft, and sweet, and sad. It spoke of years of torment and punishment, but unimaginable joy and love. She took a few steps, reaching out for the promise of the lightsaber.

She reached out and grabbed the lightsaber in both hands. It quieted at her touch, but she could stil hear the music in her head. The light and dark were growing stronger, louder, more insistent that she give them the lightsaber.

The light and dark were both yelling, saying no, telling her to stop, begging for her help. Their voices, their songs, their _everythings_  crashed above her head, but she felt nothing. She looked at both of them and saw what they were, who they were. _This was their eternal struggle._

_End it._

She snapped the lightsaber in half.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it, it's been a looooong time since I've written for other people and it's been fun putting my work out there again.
> 
> This will (probably) be my last consistent update for awhile, I start a new job in a new city on Monday and I don't exactly work the usual 9-5, 40 hrs a week kind of job. But I will try to update at least once a week, depending on how busy I am at work.
> 
> Thanks :)


	7. Chapter 7

"This First Order has been spotted in the New Alderiaan system." Admiral Tek'kapa pulled up a holographic map.

"Do we know why?" Leia looked at the map of the core worlds system. New Alderaan was on the outer edge of the core and this was the closest the First Order had come to any system belonging to the Republic.

"Nothing concrete, probably a show of force against you, General."

Leia's heart constricted, "I have an asset stationed on New Alderaan, an important one, we will need to extract her."

"This is hardly a priority General, no one knows your asset is there and she should be able to take care of herself."

"Admiral." She bit at him, "I would do the same for your assets. I am only sending a few trustworthy people to pick her up."

* * *

 

"Hey kid, ready for your fist important mission?"

Poe Dameron had been in the Resistance for one month, he had just defected from the Republic and they weren't quite sure what to do with him yet. Traxen Gen, a former Academy teacher turned Resistance Commander, said they would probably give him a squadron, they just need more time to figure out what to do with him.

He stood up quickly, "What is it Commander Gen?"

"An extraction of an asset from New Alderaan, personal mission from the General."

"Who are we picking up?" This was perfect, a personal mission from the General would prove that he was trustworthy.

"That's classified. The First Order has been in the system and we must avoid them at all costs."

"I won't let you down."

* * *

As soon as they dropped out of light speed by New Alderaan, Traxen sent a signal down to the planet.

"Hopefully she gets this down there and meets us at the landing site, that way this will be as simple as possible."

They waited a few minutes with no response. Traxen's lips tightened into a line, "This communicator goes directly to her bracelet, she can't take it off so why isn't she responding? We will have to take a look. Get a blaster, set it to stun."

"Stun?"

"Trust me, it will be simpler."

They landed at a small docking station in a small village far from the Capitol. Poe had a hard time keeping focus as they walked through the town. It was beautiful, tan stones made up every building, vines grew on walls covered in small purple flowers and the lake glinted in the sun. It was how he imagined paradise almost. At the very end of the village was a small house, right on the lake with a boat docked.

Traxen looked around, "Go around the back, there is another door to the kitchen, keep that on stun."

"If the First Order is here-"

"Stun." He repeated firmly.

"Yes sir."

Poe hopped the small fence that kept the most unruly garden he had ever seen from creeping into the street and made it to the back door. He crouched and opened it slowly. He could hear Traxen in the front, calling someone's name softly. He wished he had asked for a name now.

He took a few steps, blaster raised. No one was in the kitchen, he straightened and started to move on to the rest of the house. Poe had barely taken one step before someone heavy fell onto him from the ceiling and knocked him to the ground. Arms wrapped around his neck and tried to strangle him.

He flipped onto his back and tried to dislodge the person but they had him in a vice grip. Traxen came into the room shouting and then there was a woman's scream and a thud. Poe felt the person being dragged from him.

He rolled over and rubbed at his neck. Traxen was standing above him, 'You okay Dameron?"

"What in the force was that?"

A face peeked out from behind Traxen, his assailant he assumed. It was a woman with hair so yellow he wondered if it was actually gold. She seemed small but he knew how much of a punch she packed. She was using Traxen as a shield, "Who is he?"

"He's a pilot, he's good." Traxed quirked a smile at him.

"I can see that." She moved out from behind her human shield and squatted in front of him. She looked at him like she was dissecting him with her amber eyes. "He can't speak."

"I can-"

"Don't." She cut him off, standing up.

Traxen was working hard not to smile, "Maia, where is your bracelet? We sent a message nearly an hour ago to meet us at the landing site."

She looked down at her wrists, "I'm not sure."

"You weren't supposed to be able to take it off."

"It gave me bad dreams."

"I don't think the bracelet was the reason. Grab your bag, we are taking you to Leia." Maia nodded and left the room.

Poe looked behind him and saw a small middle aged woman clutching her chest and a bag of dropped food at her feet, "Let me help you ma'am."

"I'm not leaving if he speaks!" Maia yelled from another room.

"Thank you." The woman batted her eyelashes at him, "You gave me such a fright, I didn't think anyone would ever be here to get her and she would terrorize me for the rest of my poor, short life."

"Terrorize?"

"I can still hear you!"

Poe helped pick up the food and then looked into the rest of the house. In the main room, various things were hanging from the ceiling; clothes, bits of glass, feathers, even a fish skeleton. There didn't seem to be a pattern, but it kind of made sense to him. He reached up and touched a feather and it fell from it's bindings to the floor.

Maia appeared at that moment and he wondered if she would attack him again. "No, no, now it's all out of balance." She looked worriedly around the room.

"I can put it back."

"No." She pulled down a sock from the other side of the room, "That's fine, not as good as it used to be." She shot him a look.

"My name is Poe Dameron."

She made a 'hmph' sound at that, "More like Slow Yameron more likely, you keep talking and I thought I told you not to."

"Quiet isn't something Poe does." Traxen had a bag over his shoulder.

The woman sighed, "I am simply trying to enforce some modicum of control over my slice of the galaxy. It's just fun to see the look on his face when I give him orders." She grinned and he realized she was playing with him. He put a finger to his lips and bowed his head a little. "Good soldier."

"We have to get going Maia." Traxen reminded her.

She turned on the small woman, "Your planet depends on keeping the balance of my things. Touch them and poof, no more planet."

The woman actually looked a little scared. Maia then hugged the woman shortly before turning to them, "Lead the way my little flies."

They were shut in the cockpit before Poe felt he could speak, "Who is this?"

"The General's ward, Maia. That's about all I know. I've brought the General here a few times to see her."

"Has she always been like this?"

"She used to be quieter, but yes, she has always been eccentric."

"That is not exactly the word I would use."

"Yeah I wouldn't say that, she won't like it and neither will the General."

"Why is she like this?"

Traxen shrugged, "Some people are just weird Dameron."

That seemed to be all he wanted to say on the subject. Poe went back to check on the hyperdrive system which was known to be temperamental, much like their passenger. She was sitting at the only window in the back of the shuttle, gazing at the stars. "What color is the sky there?" She seemed to be pointing to a specific star system but he couldn't tell.

She looked at him expectantly but he just smiled. She seemed to realize what was going on and gave him a grin of her own, "Your ship is a piece of junk and the ride is so jerky I'm surprised I haven't been thrown out yet. Who taught you how to fly, Ewoks?"

Poe didn't respond.

She sighed and looked back out, "I hear there is a planet with a moon and around that moon is another mood of it's own. On that second moon is a plant that if you eat it will allow you to fly. But you can't land so you fly into space and fall down to the planet and the plant uses your body to make new plants."

"I've never heard of that planet."

"The only real pilots are pilots who have gone there and survived. Your body is the most difficult shuttle to pilot." She gave him a look up and down. She didn't seem to care that he had talked, "I've always wondered what color the sky is on that moon."

"Gold." He found himself speaking, "And when the sun sets it turns blue and the colors fight in the sky. But right where the two colors meet is the most beautiful color in the galaxy. It doesn't have a name but people pay millions to see that color."

"Sunsets happen every day."

"Someone on that planet is very rich."

"I see that color a lot." She said softly, looking back out. Poe was unsure if he should keep talking or get back to work. She didn't acknowledge him again so he went back to work. She didn't say anything else the rest of the way to D'Qar.

Traxen called for the General to meet them at the landing site. Poe went into the back to tell Maia they were about to land, but she wasn't there. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. He turned and saw she had gotten up into an upper corner of the shuttle, one foot was on the top of the door to the cockpit and the other was balanced on a bolt sticking out of the wall. That must have been how she had gotten the drop on him earlier.

"Where are you taking me?" She demanded.

Putting aside most of his questions, he smiled his most winning smile, "To Leia."

"I don't believe you. Why didn't she come a get me herself."

"Isn't it a little late to be asking that question?"

"What planet are you taking me to?"

"D'Qar, the rebel base."

She jumped quickly and he tried to catch her but she wasn't trying to be caught. She put her knees on his arms and pressed down, "You will tell me the truth."

"I am." He insisted. She seemed to consider this for a moment and he took her hesitation and flipped their positions so she would stop attacking him. "I'm not lying to you."

"Dameron, what are you doing?" A familiar voice demanded.

Maia was grinning viciously, she had planned this. He got up and tried to help her up but she pushed him off. Leia walked up the ramp and to the woman, "Are you okay?"

"Fine as the sun and the moon."

Leia glared at him, "I expect an explanation."

Poe stumbled over his words, trying to explain and then Maia giggled, "Yameron is fine, I started it."

"Thank you!"

"Did you give him the scratches?" Leia asked.

"He kept talking, it was upsetting the balance."

"Of course." Leia already looked tired and he could see why Maia didn't live here.

"Come on, lets get you settled." Maia suddenly seemed hesitant to leave the shuttle. Leia took her arm, "It will be fine, be brave."

"Like you."

Traxen was shaking his head at Poe from the cockpit, "Come on kid."

* * *

He didn't seem Maia for a week. Until he found someone yelling at her for harassing the battle droids. She seemed to be insisting they weren't happy and they would be happier if they were around soft music instead of blaster fire. She also seemed to have convinced the droids of this too.

She was cradling a BB unit protectively, his BB unit, and was singing to him softly. The mechanic was about to comm someone but Poe stopped him, "I've got this, go do something else."

The mechanic didn't seem happy about this but looked back at the woman singing softly to the droid and stomped off. BB-8 chirped happily at him.

"He says you need to stop eating teylan fruit or it will turn your hair green."

"I don't think you can speak droid."

"I don't think you want green hair."

He sat down cross legged across from her but at a respectable distance , "I see you've met BB-8, BB-8 this is Maia."

BB-8 chirped and whistled.

"I see." Maia responded seriously, "Well, I suppose he's okay then."

Poe grinned, "Being 'okay' is better than you attacking me."

"Don't get used to it. I'm still not sure this is really a Resistance base."

"Leia is here though."

"My dreams can be real." She rocked BB-8 a little, "He likes to be sung to sleep."

"Does he now? You will have to come sing him to sleep every night."

She gave him a look that was terrifyingly similar to the General's 'stop talking Dameron' look. "I will do no such think Foe Clameron."

"I thought it was Slow Yameron?"

"Talking is fine now, suggesting I go to your room and sing to your droid isn't."

"How did you know he was mine."

"He won't stop talking about you, he might have a crush."

BB-8 beeped quickly and swivled to look at him.

Maia laughed and set him down on the ground again. "Maia, what are you doing?" Leia appeared behind them, apparently the mech had commed someone. "And Dameron, don't you have a ship to look after?"

Poe scrambled to his feet, "Yes General."

* * *

There was a knock on his door after dinner. He answered, surprised to see the General at his door. "Come in."

"I won't be staying long." She wrinkled her nose at the mess of clothes on his only chair, "I just wanted to say thank you Poe, for being kind to Maia. Not many people are patient with her, and that includes me sometimes."

"She's a laugh General. But I don't think she should be around droids anymore."

"She once convinced C-3PO that it was proper custom to always greet her as Her Mightiness. She let it go on for a month." Leia smiled, "She keeps us on our toes."

"Can I ask. . ."

"Why she's like this? She was left in my care many years ago. She saw something very traumatic and it left a scar on her that's never quite healed. But she's getting better. She used to not talk to anyone, preferring her own mind to other people. But she's gotten more social. And she can do most things by herself, although I wouldn't trust her to do them consistently or without someone to keep her on task. She resents needing a caretaker but she almost burned the house down several times because she disappeared in the middle of cooking. In a few years, after being around more people again, she might return to who she was before."

"Who was she before?"

"I haven't the faintest idea Dameron, but it will be interesting to find out. Thank you again, for keeping an eye on her."


	8. Chapter 8

Maia awoke in the transport. She blinked the spots out of her eyes and as her vision cleared, Leia came into focus above her.

"What happened?" Leia asked, concern written all over her face.

"I think I made a mistake."

Someone helped her up and into a seat. She quietly told Leia what she had seen, what she had done. "I wanted the fighting to stop, but I think I made it worse."

Leia held her hand, "We all make choices, stand by yours and everything will work out."

"General, we've got to get ready for-" Poe stepped inside the transport, he stopped when he saw them sitting together. "You're awake, are you okay?" He took a few quick steps as she stood up but stopped short, unsure how close to get.

"I'm fine, starshine." She smiled at him.

"Things are going to start getting rough here, you should find somewhere safe to-" He reached for her, intending to lead her deeper in the caves, but she hit his hand away from her.

"Stop being nice to me."

"What?"

"I mean, stop treating me like I'm going to break if I get hurt. I can help."

He didn't even know she knew how to use a blaster, but she didn't ask any questions as Leia handed her a small one. "Are you sure you're okay?" Poe asked quietly.

She gave him that small, wry smile she reserved just for him, "Keep flying, don't worry about me."

She seemed more focused. Her eyes weren't darting off to the side like she was seeing something that wasn't there anymore.

"What happened in the transport?"

"If we make it out of here alive, maybe I'll tell you."

Poe grinned, "Well now I've got something to live for."

She laughed, loud and clear and went into the communication center of the base. She stayed there, kept an eye out while the real heroes tried to stop the First Order from entering the base. She kept tabs on the battle outside, the King and Queen were both out there, she could sense them. But something else was coming, something old.

* * *

"I can stop him." Maia said, standing up from behind the old speeder, looking at the gash in the door.

Poe grabbed her arm, "Maia, no, he's not going to take prisoners, he will just kill you."

"Well I can stall him at least, so the majority can get away."

He stared at her in confusion, "What makes you think you can do this all of a sudden?" Running off to Starkiller Base had surprised him, but suggesting she could take on the First Order by herself was a new level of bravery from her.

"Do you trust me?" She grabbed his hand and looked him in the eye. There was nothing but steely resolve in her eyes.

In his heart, he knew that if she was going out that door, he was going to follow her like a lovesick idiot in a holo movie. "Let me come with you."

"It's my turn to be a hero."

"Maia." A new voice interrupted them. The two turned and saw Luke Skywalker, standing behind them.

"Ghost Luke?"

"It used to be Master Luke." The older man quirked a smile at her.

"You've been a ghost to me since you left me here." Maia dropped his hand and clenched her fists.

"I'm sorry Maia, I could have brought you with me. Maybe life on the island would have been easier for you, separate from all of this." He waved a hand around the room, Poe swore he got a pointed look as well.

She seemed to relax at his words, "It wasn't your decision to make anyway, I am where I am supposed to be."

"Rey needs a teacher."

"I won't use lightsaber, I can't." She remembered the feel of Luke's saber in her hands on Starkiller base and how she hadn't been able to push the button and fight the old king.

"Your skills were always elsewhere. You are going to have to trust yourself again."

"The last time I did that, I let Ben Solo kill children."

"Failure is the best teacher. Something I just learned myself."

There was a long pause between them, their eyes locked. Maia nodded, "Goodbye, Luke Skywalker. The Force is with you, until the end."

He touched her shoulder and walked out.

Poe felt like a bucket of cold water had just been dumped on his head. Everything that had happened in the last few days and the last few years suddenly made more sense to him. He turned to Maia in awe, "You're a Jedi?"

"No, I was never going to be a Jedi."

"But you trained with them, you were trained how to use the Force!"

"A long time ago."

"Amazing. You can help us fight the First Order, this is great!" He wanted to pick her up and hug her, finally a ray of hope.

He was beaming at her, she didn't want to disappoint him so she just nodded and turned back to watch Luke disappear into the light. She still wasn't sure what she was going to do with her newfound courage and clarity. The old King's oppressive anger was weighing on her. The Force had been whispering to her since she woke up.

 _Go to him,_ it said,  _bring him balance._

Usually when it whispered to her like this, so clear and conscise, she listened. But there was a seed out doubt in her heart, maybe Luke was right.

Poe grabbed her arm, breaking her out of her reprieve, "Maia, come on, we found a way out."

She looked towards the hole, "Maybe I should stay."

"Ren will kill you."

"No, he will just use me for his own gains. But he can't truly control me, I am far beyond that."

Poe took a deep breath, "Is this what you want to do?"

The Force was always clear in what needed to be done, but it was pushing her away from what she wanted. The King and Queen were both out of balance. That was an arguement she could make for staying. After all, there was only so much she could do.

"No, it's not."

Kylo Ren wasn't her path forward, Rey was, and Poe and Finn and Leia. She took his hand, "This is my decision to make."

* * *

"I'm Rey."

"I know." Poe grinned. He was glad he finally got to meet the girl Finn wouldn't shut up about. Just behind her shoulder, he saw Maia roll her eyes at him. She then made the 'I'm watching you' gesture at BB-8 and then him before walking away

"Excuse me for a moment." He followed Maia, "What was that for?"

She rolled her eyes at him again, "It all starts with 'I know' doesn't it."

"What did you think I was flirting with her? I just met her! Why am I defending myself to you?" He realized she was teasing him now. "Oh I get it."

"Flybird, you will never actually get it." Her eyes slid past him and saw Rey sitting with the general, "I have to talk to her."

She approached Rey who was clutching the shattered lightsaber with caution. Rey looked up at her, confused and lost, "You were there, you broke the lightsaber."

Maia knelt down in front of her and put her hands over Rey's, "I did."

"Why?"

"It's difficult to explain."

"Who are you?" Rey asked her again.

Maia looked up and felt the younger girl's confusion and pain and loss. "I'm your new teacher. The old king needs to be defeated." She took half the saber and worked out part of the broken kyber crystal, "You are the queen of the light and you need help. Let me help you."

"You've called me your Highness before, why do you talk like this?"

"It's better than screaming all the time." Maia said with her most winning smile.

Rey wasn't sure what her reaction to that should be, "Who are you really?" She asked for the third time.

"Maia, no last name to be given. I trained under Luke Skywalker, I survived the Jedi massacre and I've waited for you a long time your Highness."

"It's just Rey."

"In that case, it's nice to meet you, just Rey." She pushed both halves of the crystal into Rey's hands and tossed the broken saber away. "This is a new beginning, our new beginning."


	9. Chapter 9

Maia put all of her concentration into the small floating ball in front of her. She used to be able to do this without thinking about it, but now it took actual effort. She doubted whether or not she could teach Rey if she couldn't do anything herself. _Those who can't do, teach._ She had once said that about Luke, but he had proved her wrong quickly by beating her in sparring in front of the other apprentices. It had been a humbling moment of her childhood and she hadn't doubted those with expertise since.

She had easily found Rey's hidden stash of Jedi texts and often read them deep into the night. They were boring and old and she disliked them more than she had disliked the way Luke had taught the Jedi code to her. She had an urge to burn them, but she thought Rey would be upset with her if she did.

For now, she would focus on teaching Rey what she knew and improve on what she could in secret.

* * *

Rey was learning that Maia was an inconsistent and often capricious master. Meditation could last all day, or five minutes. One time she disappeared for three days and then dropped out of a tree onto Rey as she was walking through the forest around their new base to clear her head. Poe couldn't stop laughing at that story, apparently it was nearly the same way they had met.

Maia refused to pick up a weapon so Rey had to handle that on her own. "It interferes with the music." Was Maia's only defense for herself on this topic. She also refused to talk about her time at the Jedi Temple, or Ben Solo. She talked about Luke in passing but never in detail.

Maia hit her in the back with a stick, "Why can't you concentrate today?"

"There is so much going on and you have me just sitting here  _feeling the force!"_ Rey exclaimed.

"You are trying to control everything too much! You need to learn to let go." She made a wide sweeping movement with her arms.

Rey copied the movement badly, "I don't know what  _this_  means."

"What is really bothering you?"

Rey took a moment and collected herself, "You knew Ben Solo before he became Kylo Ren. I know you don't like to talk about it, but I want to know what he was like."

"It's no use dwelling on the past Rey. Ben Solo is dead, we need to move on."

"He said the same thing, letting go of the past. Did he get that from you?"

Maia fidgeted with a ring on her right hand, a tick of hers Rey now associated with her thoughts going off track and into the realm of the impossible.

"He was a prince, and I was a lowly pauper in his light. But he was sad, he never quite fit in, but neither did I really. He was powerful and that set him apart. I was weird and bad at most things and that set me apart. But I was never sad. Everything was. . . golden, that's how I remember it. I was golden and whole in those years. Ben was. . . blue, but a dark blue, the sky on the edge, just before it gives up to the night. But he was so strong, none of that mattered. He was always nice to me when others weren't. He listened when I would rant against the Jedi code, I always thought the restrictions were silly. But the Force, I understood that. The music of balance, sweet and complete. The light and dark were always dancing, push and pull, fast and slow. No one else seemed to hear it. Ben did, a little. But not like me." She was silent for a long time, lost in her thoughts.

"Maia?"

She snapped out of it, "Sorry, it's hard to remember sometimes."

"I understand." Rey found it hard to remember her parents, knowing that they had just thrown her away. It was a pain she would always carry with her.

"I feel it too."

Rey looked up, alarmed, but it was just Maia. Her eyes were soft and she reached out and squeezed her hand softly, "It's what we do with our pain that makes us who we are, what makes you different from him. His pain defines him, but you can defy yours. Talk about it, if you want, it will help."

"Do you talk about yours?"

"Not in so many words. Or at least words you can understand." Maia chuckled a little at herself and Rey smiled. Even though her life was complicated and dangerous, Maia did help her feel safe and wanted here in the Resistance.

* * *

Their new base was an old Rebellion base, abandoned long before even Leia had been active against the Empire. They all struggled to get the base operational. The Black Squadron came back from the far reaches of the galaxy Poe had sent them. A few other ragged members of the Resistance limped their way to safety from their hiding places and secret missions.

Maia was very glad her mechanic friend Tel Ban'wa was back. Tel and Maia came from the same trading station on Teranai 5 in the mid rim. They were often found joking around in their native language that only they (and C-3PO) spoke. Tel had left the Resistance briefly because of the death of his mother to go home. He had apologized profusely to the General that he hadn't responded to the distress call, but he didn't have a ship and couldn't have gotten off Teranai 5 to help. He was forgiven, of course, and put back to work on the few ships they had left.

Poe was grounded until he could get a working X-Wing. "How does it look?" He called up to the Teranain mechanic.

Tel was fidling around in the cockpit of an old X-wing, several models out of date with his old fighter. "They don't make them like this anymore Dameron, she'll fly just fine." Tel jumped out and dusted himself off.

"How is you family?"

"Just fine. It was, strange, going back. There's a lot you forget about home while you're out in the galaxy."

He looked around the nearly empty hanger, "Did you manage to ask around about Maia at all?"

Tel nodded, "I asked around town if anyone knew her back when she lived there. A kid I grew up with says he remembers a girl from the streets named Maia, matches her description. She was a bastard kid, no last name. He remembers her running around and being the best pickpocket in the station. The gangs and child collectors didn't mess with her for some reason."

"Anything else?"

"She just disappeared one day. No one saw her again, most people thought her mother had killed her, or sold her for money. It's not unusual."

That left a bad taste in his mouth, "Is her mother still around?" _  
_

"Don't know, didn't ask. Probably not."

"Thanks." He patted the mechanic on the shoulder.

Tel surprised him and grabbed his arm, "Don't tell her you know anything about this. I don't think she'd like it."

"She's different Tel, maybe it wouldn't bother her so much anymore."

He shook his head, "She lived on the streets in Teranai City, no one wants to remember that, I don't care how different she is now. Promise me Dameron."

Poe wanted to promise, he really did. But Maia was being more open with him and he just didn't think he could keep it a secret from her if it came up. He was about to say something when they were interrupted by a bang.

Finn stormed into the hanger, clutching at a tool with white knuckles, muttering to himself. "Everything okay?" Poe asked him

Finn walked over to them, "Yeah, fine, of course. The water system is malfunctioning and the pressure system need addressed. A thousand things are wrong in this old place and Rose and I can only do so much."

"Icangiveyouahand." Tel blurted out, then cleared his throat, "I mean, I'm a mechanic, I'm sure I can be of some use in maintenance."

Poe was about to protest and say that the ships were a priority, but he knew that the base operations were more important at this moment. And he had never heard Tel talk faster than a slow drawl so hearing him blurt words like that was definitely new and interesting. He nodded and patted the shorter man on the shoulder again, "Don't have too much fun in maintenance, we still need you to fix ships too."

The two turned to go and Poe remembered something. "Oh wait, Tel, Maia yelled something at me, I don't know what it means.  _Balta_?"

He made a confused face, " _Balta_? What was the context?"

"Maia yelled it at me angrily, about herself."

"It means perfect?" Tel seemed unsure of his answer.

"Really?"

"Or 'pleasant cloud shape' it depends on the context."

Poe had a feeling he knew which context Maia meant.

* * *

Nightly gatherings became a thing with the Resistance members on base. They went old school and gathered around a fire just outside the hanger. Tel had brought a small stringed instrument back with him from the planet. He played mostly idly, not really caring if anyone was listening. He took the time at night to practice songs that were not very consistent in quality, but Maia seemed to enjoy them at least.

"You are terrible at this." Maia said after the second time Poe stepped on her foot.

"They didn't teach dancing at the Academy."

"Yes, all of your talents lie in your hands." She said dryly, with just the barest hint of teasing and his brain stopped working for a moment. She stepped away from him and offered out her hand, "Rey dance with me."

"Oh, I've never-"

"I'm not asking." Rey got up and stood in front of her. Maia placed her hands, "Just follow me."

But Rey was stiff and kept trying to lead her.

"Stop fighting me. You're gripping my hand like you might die. Relax, feel the music, stop controlling everything."

Rey loosened her grip and tried to relax. She followed Maia's movements, stepping forward when she stepped back and vice versa, "I'm getting the hang of it."

"Use the force."

"What?"

"Trust me, trust the force." Maia changed the steps and Rey kept up with her. Maia twirled Rey, dipped her and brought her back up. They separated and came back together effortlessly. Rey realized they weren't dancing, they were doing a set of movements in perfect sync. Rey let the Force guide her body in time with the music, and just for a moment, she felt what Maia had been talking about earlier. Letting go of herself, she could feel the Force working around her, not just existing between everything as she had felt before. They stopped, palms facing each other, almost touching.

Maia was beaming, "Letting go isn't that hard."

Rey laughed and threw her arms around Maia and they hugged, to everyone's confusion.

"Can someone explain what that was?" Finn asked.

"Force stuff." Maia moved to take her seat.

Poe stood up, "Well now that I've been shown up by someone who has literally never danced before, I'm willing to try again." Poe held out his hand to Maia. BB-8 rolled up to them and beeped, "What do you mean you have the next dance?"

Maia let out a hearty laugh and scooped up the BB unit and twirled him around. BB-8 gave Poe a look that was clearly a tongue sticking out situation. Maia cradled the droid and sung softly to him. Poe grinned at them and everyone exchanged the 'look at this idiot' looks they had been exchanging for weeks. Poe had that dopey grin he only gave Maia, and occasionally BB-8 when he did something clever.

Poe nearly refused to believe everything BB-8 had done on Canto Bight and the Finalizer, and BB-8 was playing dumb much to Finn's frustration. And Maia was playing hard to get with Poe for reasons none of them could fathom. Rey and Rose had tried to get answers from her but only ever got, "mermaids don't love birds" or "he doesn't know how to land."

Poe was a much better partner the second time. He even managed a spin which made her smile, "You are a quick learner."

"I try."

Tel's pace picked up and changed tune. It was earthy and quick, like a steady stream. Maia broke from him and gasped. She rushed to Tel's side and started singing softly in her language. Tel stopped and nudged her a little and she made a face, "It's doesn't sound right translated into basic."

"Give it a go." Tel started up again, his hands moving purposefully on the strings.

_"There's a sky underground where the sparrows chase me down_   
_'Cause there's nowhere left for me to go_   
_I'm alone but I'm alive, you can make me dance_   
_But don't make me dive into the_   
_Unknown world below_

_I've been traveling on this land where my feet don't understand_   
_The red rising ripples of the sea, and_   
_In this place I call home the sky is_   
_Always painted gold with the help of_   
_A brush and a sycamore tree_

_In the woods, where I sleep, the winds are resting with the deep_   
_Violet flowers singing songs of the tambourine_   
_They sing the songs of grace with their hands over my face_   
_Crying tears that are swallowed by the_   
_Ground so green"_

At the end Tel finally joined in and Maia took up a steady clapping and stomping rythym, twirling and checking in with everyone in the circle around the fire.

_"Sing to the sky_   
_Sing down low_   
_Singing to myself_   
_Is all I know_   
_Sing to the birds_   
_Sing to the snow_   
_Singing to you_   
_Is all I know"_

It was a strange song, but Poe did think it was beautiful, much like Maia herself who seemed to come alive in the firelight. People clapped and gave her small cheers. She gave them a small bow and a shy smile. But a shadow crossed over her face and she suddenly made for the inside of the base, "Goodnight birdies." She waved back at them. Usually he let her go when she acted weird, but it felt different this time.

He jogged after her, "Maia wait, what's up?"

She shook her head and kept walking, "Don't land now Flybird, I just need space."

"Hey." He caught her, "I've found a branch, I'm landing. Talk to me."

She looked around, "The old King is trying to find Rey. He's poking around the Force. It's better if we are separate, we draw less attention that way."

"Why do you call him that?" Rey had told him who she was talking about when she said 'the old King' and he did not like it.

Maia shook her head, "I can't talk about this now." She started walking away again but he kept pace, "Go away."

"He's not looking for me, you don't need to be away from me."

Her mouth quirked up, "you aren't wrong." She stopped, "I forgot, he tortured you. I forget that."

"I wish I could."

She bit her lip, clearly wanting to say something to help him, share something, but deciding not to. "Everything passes in time." She took his hand, "Even the bad things."

"Jedi wisdom?"

"Hopefulness."

They looked at each other for a long moment and he realized he was looking at someone different than the Maia he had known. She was finally getting past whatever trauma had hurt her. She was getting stronger. She was still beautiful to him and he didn't care about the changes so long as she didn't lose her smile or the twinkle in her eyes when she teased him. She had never been confused or lost, just dealing with trauma, and he had never helped her enough. He had treated her like a lost child, and he had been wrong.

"You said, back on the ship, I wanted you to be  _balta_." The word felt wrong in his mouth. "Tel told me what it meant."

"I was angry and confused, why else would I have been talking about clouds?" Poe must have looked surpirsed because she smiled up at him, "Don't worry too much about it Poe."

"I think you are perfect." The words sprouted out of his mouth without warning.

She looked embarrased now, "Oh. Well. Is this a thing we are doing now? Flirting?"

"I like to think of it as honesty." He grinned.

Maia laughed softly. She was still holding his hand, soft and warm in his. His heart was beating loudly in his chest and he was reminded of the first time he kissed someone and how nervous he had felt just before. She looked up at him and he  _felt_ it. He was going to do it, he was going to kiss her and it was going to be awesome.

Laughter pulled them out of the moment. He looked down the hall and saw Finn, Rose and Tel approaching quickly. Cursing internally he turned back but Maia had taken the opportunity to slip away and was nowhere to be seen. He should have known she wouldn't stay still for long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I highly suggest listening to "Lost Boys" by Paper Bird, it's a lovely song.


	10. Chapter 10

Poe inspected the X-Wing, "You say she's good to go?"

"Should be. Won't really know how well she flies until you try her out. You won't be able to do fancy moves like you are used to just yet, but she should be able to do the basics. I have some parts coming in soon and then, you won't be able to tell the difference between this one and that old hunk of junk you used to fly." Tel crossed his arms and leaned against the ship.

Poe and Tel used to butt heads about his old X-Wing. Tel hated that he always had to fix it and gerry-rig it just to fly. Tel called it a death trap and told him repeatedly he needed a new ship. Poe refused every time and kept the old girl flying.

"I will have her home by midnight."

Tel sighed exasperatedly, "Don't fly too far or too high in case something goes wrong."

BB-8 rolled excitedly over to their new ship. Tel had outfitted it so BB-8 could still be his copilot. Rey and Maia were returning from the forest, soaking wet. "What happened to you two?" He asked.

Rey's disgruntled look turned to joy as she saw him getting into his ship. "Is it finally fixed?"

"I'm about to take it for a test flight."

"Can I go next?" She had been so busy with Jedi training, she hadn't had time to work on any of the ships with Tel or even fly the Falcon.

Poe laughed, "We'll see how it goes."

Maia joined them, "Be safe."

"I always am." He winked and put his helmet on. Rey laughed at something he couldn't hear as the engine fired up.

Up in the sky around the planet, he felt free again. This was where he belonged. Leading the Resistance had felt restricting in the last few weeks and it felt good to be back in the pilots seat. He went a little higher and BB-8 reminded him that he was supposed to stay close.

"Everything is fine, it won't hurt anyone to go a little farther." He shushed his overprotective droid. He pushed it a little farther, a little faster, the adrenaline rushing through his system. He let out a ' _whoop_ ' as he circled around the base. More people had come to out to see the first new ship fly. A smile overtook his face as he pulled a sharp turn around towards the hangar.

The engine let out a scream followed by a puff and his controls went dead.

"No no no no." He repeated as he pushed dead buttons on his X-wing.

He was dead in the sky, he couldn't talk to BB-8 and the ground was approaching far faster than he liked. He was headed straight for the base and no amount of pilot trickery was going to stop him now.

He was going to die.

Suddenly his ship stopped midair, jerked in his seat, he crashed against the side and shot pain down his arm, but he had stopped moving. He exhaled in relief as the ship slowly descended to the tarmac. He looked out for Maia or Rey, but at that moment the ship dropped the last thirty feet. Just as he started falling he glimpsed sudden movement on the field.

He jerked forward and hit his head on the dash and felt the landing throughout his whole body. Even though his helmet absorbed most of the impact, his vision was still blurry as he tried to escape the cockpit. He squeezed out a broken window in the canopy, a bunch of mechanic's helpied him out by pulling on his arms. His leg buckled under him as soon as he put weight on it, but he managed to stay standing. "Where is she?" He pushed them all away. BB-8 ejected himself from the wreckage and beeped disappointedly at the state of their X-Wing.

Another group of people had gathered near the bay doors, Rey and Finn among them. He limped over as fast as he could and got there just before the medics. Maia was laying on the ground, eyes closed, bleeding from her nose. A blood vessel had burst in her forehead, spreading red and purple over her forehead. He knelt by her, pain shooting up his leg, "Maia, wake up." He grabbed her face.

"Poe." Rey was crying.

"No no no, I wasn't worth it Maia, I would have been fine, you know me."

Her head rolled to the side and he was pushed away by medics. Rey was still crying, Finn gave her a hug and motioned for him to come over. Finn included him in the hug, holding onto his friends as if this would solve all of their problems.

"What happened?" He demanded.

Rey took a few calming breaths, "I don't know, I went inside, to talk to Tel about the other ships and I felt you ship crashing and, I didn't react fast enough and she wasn't strong enough to do it herself."

"You didn't help her, or stop her?"

"Poe, we were watching you die, we were in shock. Maia's had to have seen pilots die like this before and never stopped them like this. We didn't think she could." Finn said softly.

He took a step back and his leg gave out. They caught him, "you need to go to the med bay too."

There was a hairline fracture in his left thigh bone, a sprained wrist and a minor concussion. Considering he could have died, he'd take it. They told him Maia was still unconscious but they didn't think she was dying. They weren't sure how to handle her so she was just under observation for now.

Leia was less than happy with him as she chewed him out for being reckless now that he was a Resistance leader. "Go get some sleep Dameron, that's an order." She finished her rant with a stern look.

"I don't think I can right now, I would rather stay here."

Her face softened a little, "I will be here, you will be the first call I make if something happens. Now go."

He slept but he didn't like it. Four hours were all he got. BB-8 came back and told him he needed a new ship and then grumbled about his problems before going into his charging station. He finally just got up and went to the medbay.

Finn was sitting with her, "Leia had to work, we figured you would be even angrier if we left her alone."

Poe rubbed his face, "Sorry if I sounded angry at you. I'm just scared."

"But you are angry at Rey."

"I don't want to talk about it right now." He took Maia's hand. She did look a little better.

Finn stood up, "Comm me if you need anything." He paused at the door, "You don't have a lot of excuses now Poe."

Poe nearly drifted off, pressing his head into her hand, praying to. . . he didn't even know who. The Force? Did you pray to the Force?

Her hand twitched under his head and he looked up as her head rolled to the side, "Maia, hey hey." He held her head and had her look at him. Her eyes were about half open and she was taking deep breaths. "Maia, come back to me."

He kissed her, that's what the hero was supposed to do, kiss the girl and make everything better. But Maia didn't respond, her head rolled back to the side and seemed to be unconscious again. The monitor beeped.

"Commander, what are you doing?" A doctor was standing in the doorway, arms crossed. "Get out of my medbay!"

"I didn't, she woke up!"

"Get out now! Kissing is not going to help her!"

"I can't leave."

"Leave or I call security and haul your ass to the brig."

Poe knew a battle he couldn't win, so he took up position outside the medbay. Then the same doctor banned him from the east wing entirely and sent a message to security about it. Leia tried to negotiate on his behalf but had to concede that it wasn't good for him to be hanging around the medbay all day.

* * *

He was eating lunch sullenly the next day. BB-8 was clean and repaired again, and feeling much better than he did. He was still injured and had nothing to do but sit and worry.

Finn and Rey were on the Falcon with Chewie, hiding from him he supposed. Rose had tried to distract him but failed and so she slunk off somewhere to be alone too.

Someone sat down across from him. It was Tel, "I hope you are feeling as bad as you look."

Poe chuckled darkly, "I deserve more than that."

"Don't beat yourself up too much. She could have let you die, but she didn't, she chose to save you. You should be grateful to her."

"I am, I swear. I will let her know when she wakes up."

"Mmhmm yeah." Tel gave him the knowing look of an older brother who knew exactly what his intentions were towards his sister. Before he could defend himself Tel laughed and waved his hands, "Like I said, don't beat yourself up too much." He stood. "I have to get to work repairing your mess again. Your droid has been a big help." Tel patted him on the shoulder as he left the cantina.

He looked back and standing there was the angry doctor, Dr. Kellen, he remembered, "Banning me from eating my lunch now?"

She sighed and took a seat, "Actually, I thought you would like an update on Maia's condition, the General gave me permission to share everything with you."

"Will she wake up?"

"Her vitals are getting stronger, we were worried there for awhile after your. . . incident, but she's coming back. If you would like to see her again, you can have two hours a day until she wakes up."

"What exactly is wrong with her?"

"Exhaustion? Stopping an X-Wing from crashing, even with the Force, I imagine it takes a toll on the body. But we can't be sure. I'm trying to get my hands on old medical texts from before the Empire but those things cost on the Black Market."

"Thank you, for helping her."

The doctor nodded and stood up, "And I'm sure with your limited medical knowledge, you thought kissing her would help her. But please, don't do it again."

Poe nodded, unable to come up with a response to that one. He was angry at everyone involved in this, but mostly himself. He had been reckless and he knew that if he hadn't pushed the ship then none of this would have happened. He could try to blame Rey all day long, but he knew it was his fault.

* * *

Two days later he walked into the med bay and saw Maia sitting up in bed, talking to Leia. He froze in the doorway. She turned her head to him and burst into tears and reached out for him. He fell into her arms and hugged her as she cried into his shoulder.

"Commander, please release my patient." Dr. Kellen said tiredly.

Her eyes were now red from crying, her face splotchy like it was when she got too mad at him. Leia gave her a cloth and she blew her nose. "Are you okay? How long have you been awake? Why didn't anyone call me?" The words flew from his mouth like birds and Maia smiled weakly in return.

"I will be fine. You almost died."

"You almost died! And I couldn't save you like you saved me!" There was a long moment between them as he realized what he had said and how angry he had sounded. The first thing he had felt was relief that she was awake, the second thing was anger that she had risked herself to save him. He had been saving all his frustration at her for this moment it seemed.

Leia cleared her throat, "I will leave you two alone." at the same time Maia said "I don't need you to save me."

"Why don't both of you go, I need some time with Maia, you can come back later." Dr. Kellen interrupted, cutting the sudden tension and giving him a pointed look.

That seemed to snap both of them out of it. He wasn't angry at her, he reminded himself and he needed to stop acting like it. "She just woke up!" He exclaimed, motioning to her.

"Yes, she did. I have tests to run and I don't trust you alone in my medbay Dameron. Come back in an hour."

Maia looked at him quizzically, "What did you do?"

"I will tell you later."

* * *

He found Rey, Finn, and Rose standing around an old A-Wing, discussing how best to fix it. "She's awake."

They all looked relieved, "Can we see her?" Rey asked.

"I got kicked out again, so no, not for another hour at least."

Finn shook his head, "What is that doctors problem with you?"

Poe turned to Rey, "Sorry I got mad at you earlier. It wasn't your fault."

"I'm sorry too." Rey responded softly, ducking her head shyly. "I could have done something to help but I didn't."

"You're still learning. It's my fault she had to do it in the first place."

Finn gave him a side hug and the girls joined in quickly. He felt safe in their arms and happy for the first time in the last few days. He was lucky to have their support and love, even when he messed up as badly as he just had. He didn't deserve it.

* * *

An hour later, Poe walked into Maia's room in the medbay, "I brought BB-8, he's been worried sick about you." BB-8 beeped that Poe had been very sad lately, "Traitor."

"How are your injuries?"

He patted his leg, "Healing just fine. I'll be back to work by the end of the week." Silence hung between them, he could tell she was hurt by what he had said earlier, "Maia, I know I don't need to protect you. But you shouldn't have risked yourself like that to save me."

Maia smiled a little and patted the bed next to her. He sat, unsure if he was forgiven or not. "Dr. Kellen told me why she kicked you out of the medbay."

"Which time?"

"The first time?"

"Ah, the one I was planning on telling you about. Listen, I did it-"

She cut him off, "Whatever you are about to say doesn't matter."

Before he could protest and say it did matter, she grabbed his face and kissed him. Poe's grin was so big she pulled away, "Are you trying to get me kicked out of here again?" He asked

"You've foiled my plan."

"For the record, I was going to say I did it because I've been wanting to for awhile now but you intimidate me for so much I figured kissing you while unconscious would make me less nervous."

She laughed and leaned up to kiss him again. He gave her a proper kiss this time. His hands went to her back, pulling her as close as possible. He was lost in the feeling of her lips against his, her hands on his neck, caressing at the hairs on the back of his neck. This was everything he had thought it would be and more. He broke from her lips and kissed down her neck, nuzzling the skin behind her ear. She laughed and swatted at his back, "Cut it out flybrid or you'll be banned for life."

Her eyes were alight in a way he had never seen before. He wanted to kiss her again, but he bit his lip, "Why did you save me?"

He thought the answer would be simple. Either 'I couldn't live without you' or 'I love you' but she didn't answer for a long time.

"Did you know the original Jedi texts don't say anything against personal attachments?"

"What?" No answer could have surprised him more.

"Luke made this big deal about teaching us not to be attached to people, or things. That nothing was greater than the Force. Personally, I always thought it was because Luke had never been kissed before." She shook her head, "That's beside the point. My childhood and teen years was always  _'Don't love anything it's all going to die and be a part of the Force one day anyway and holding onto things will just turn you to the dark side._ ' But the original texts never said anything like that, probably because they lived on an island and abstaining from procreation was probably not sustainable. But instead, the texts are a celebration of life and love in all it's positive forms. They believed that you should love where and when possible and accept when it changes and moves and occasionally when people die and become one with the Force."

"You're getting to the point soon right?"

"I have been reading the texts, trying to find a loophole to the whole non-attachment things for two months before this. I saw your X-wing crashing and I didn't want all that research to be for nothing. There is nobody else I would toss out everything that I had ingrained into me as religion since childhood other than you."

He nodded, "I think I understood most of that."

She smiled, "I couldn't let you die Poe Dameron, my ever flying bird, I've put too much work into you.

He laughed and pressed his forehead to hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TBH I could leave this here, with Poe and Maia all safe and happy, but what is the fun in that?
> 
> More to come soon!


	11. Chapter 11

_She floated freely among the stars. The dust of unborn wishes swirled around her and carried her to a nebula that glowed gold and black and blue and everything inbetween._

_Tall figures with gaunt, starved faces stood amongst the graveyard dust. "You do not belong with them anymore young one. The Whills welcome you back child, will you stay with us this time?"_

_Just for a moment, she wanted to. This was what she had always been striving for. Becoming one with the Force, free to float the galaxy._

_'I want to be free of my skin.' The familiar whisper fllled the air around her. She had been offered this before and in her grief and fear she had refused and had returned to her broken body the day most of her had died._

_This was different, she wasn't afraid and she wasn't sad. She felt light and happiness, but not how she used to feel it before. A thread of red dust curled around her wrist and tugged. She turned and saw the gnarled face of the monster that had haunted her._

_"You didn't think that you could escape me that easily little girl."_

_A human hand, pale and spotted with a red ring reached for her. She jerked away from it and for moment the dust let her go._

_Light filled her vision_ **"Maia, come back to me."**

_"Go back to him." The monster sneered, "And seal your fate."_

_The dust disappeared and she fell for so long she forgot why she was falling. It was darkness and stars and weightlessness._

_Her eyes closed and when they opened again she was on the edge of a stream in a forest. Glowing flowers floated lazily downstream and a man in a cloak watched._

_"I shouldn't have scared you away." The man spoke._

_She sat next to the man, as she had done many times before, "You thought you were doing the right thing."_

_"I should have let you talk to him at least, it wouldn't have hurt anything, maybe even shown him that he had a friend." The world worn face of Luke Skywalker looked over at her, "You were his friend, weren't you?"_

_"As much as I could be."_

_"He always was hard to reach. But you would have done a better job than I did."_

_"Most definitely."_

_Luke chuckled, "I always thought that if I had a daughter, she would be like you."_

_"And if I had wanted a distant, strict father, I suppose I could have done worse than you."_

_He didn't find that funny, "There are things I would have done differently. Make sure Rey doesn't make my mistakes."_

_"Rey will make her own mistakes, we all will. But we've learned from yours."_

_"Good. You best be going now." He reached into the water and picked up one of the glowing flowers, "Your name means flower, doesn't it?"_

_"Close enough." She leaned over and kissed the side of his head, "Goodbye again."_

_"Goodbye again." He gave her a kind smile and she was floating away, not falling this time._

_Something tugged on her hand insistently and a soft voice spoke in her ear. It was comforting and felt like home. She followed the voice and into the light._

She opened her eyes to Leia, looking down at her with a smile. "You're okay." She said confidently, touching the younger woman's face gently.

"Where's Poe?"

"He's alive, don't worry. We had to force him to leave your side."

Relief flooded through her, she hadn't failed, he was fine and she was alive too. They were both alive and everything would be fine.

* * *

Tel was giving Poe the cold shoulder. Every time he came to ask how the ships were doing, he got even gruffer answers than he was used to. Finn saw one of these short exchanges and winced in sympathy, "I'm sure he'll forgive you soon."

Leia was a little stiffer with him too, but considering the abysmal state of the Resistance, he couldn't blame her. She was always off trying to make alliances and support. Finn often went with her, it turned out he was pretty good at convincing people to join them. That left Rose and Tel with the bulk of repairs and maintenence, which they were fine with. Finn was a good helping hand but didn't exactly know what he was doing. Poe had walked in on the three of them having intense discussions in the hangar bay late at night and every time he interrupted they all jumped apart like they were doing something wrong. He decided not to ask too many questions.

They let Maia out of the medbay the next day. She was remarkably upbeat and seemed almost stronger, or so at least he thought. Maia put a hold on Rey's training for the time being. She said Rey needed to put more work in with the Resistance and Rey seemed more than happy to do just that. She had missed being in a ship and Chewbacca was glad to have her back too.

"Good morning." She kissed him and slid on the bench next to him in the mess. It was early, he didn't ask how she knew he would be awake. First shift wouldn't be awake for another hour and third shift were all busy. SHe was uncomfortable showing affection in front of others, she said it took away from her mystery. He was okay with that, he kind of liked these private moments they found.

"Good morning indeed." He kissed her more soundly then went back to shoveling food into his mouth.

She shook her head, "You have nowhere to keep all that food."

He started to mumble a response with his mouth full, but he was cut off by a comm. He was being summond to Leia's office.

* * *

"It seems as though a First Order funded insurgent group has started causing mayhem on Teranai 5." Leia pulled up a map and the planet in the mid rim, near the outer rim, was magnified.

Tel nodded, "I heard some rumors while I was there last."

"A group has been fighting them, the contacted us and requested assistance. We intend to send it."

Poe read through the request, "Why Teranai 5? No offense, but it's nowhere important, why does the First Order want anything to do with this place?"

"The Dennon wine trade is surprisingly lucrative and has been gaining traction over the last ten years. It would be a good source of income as well as flooding the market with it to make people, complicit in a way."

Dennon wine was considered illegal in the core worlds and many other planets. Itw was sweet and addictive, causing people to go into a haze and often forget their pain.

"I also find it suspicious, almost as if they know one of our members is from that particular planet." Leia finished.

"My family knows and that's it. They wouldn't sell me out." Tel said confidently.

"I don't think it's you they would be thinking of." He looked at Leia, who nodded understandingly. "And someone else could have found out, you said you couldn't get a comm to us, someone could have intercepted it or stopped you from contacting us."

Tel hesistated at that, "You could be right. I'm not a field agent, but I know my home and the people there. I can go find out what's going on."

"They know we are coming, I don't want to send you alone." She turned to Poe, "Go with him, take a few others, not Maia and not Rey, anyone else."

Poe nodded, he hadn't intended on bringing them anyway, although a part of him thought that Rey would be a good asset with her Jedi skills and Maia did know the planet.

He asked Finn and Rose to come with them. They were both the people he trusted most in the Resistance and Finn's new found talent in diplomacy would be useful.

A figure was standing in his room, scaring him nearly to death. Maia stepped out of the shadows, hands on her hips, "When do we leave?"

Pulling his hand off his chest and running it through his hair, he took a deep breath before replying, "You can't scare me like that, how long have you been waiting here?"

"Long enough for you to be nervous. When are we leaving for Teranai?"

"Leia said you and Rey couldn't go."

"I know, Tel told me already and I'm saying that both of us are going."

"You aren't even in the Resistance Maia, you can't just come on missions."

Her hands moved from her hips to crossed across her chest, "Flybird, do you doubt that I could be helpful? I lived on Teranai five for nearly ten years. I know my way around."

"But it's been what, twenty years since you were last there? The First Order is there too, and I can't have you get to close to them. What if Kylo Ren shows up? Are you saying that you can fight Kylo Ren? That didn't go so well for you last time!"

"I know I'm not as strong as him, but what are the chances of him showing up on Terenai 5?" She took a few steps until she was in front of him, "I can be helpful."

Poe rubbed his face, "Maia, we've lost so much recently, I've. . . made some bad decisions. I don't want to make another decision that will hurt you."

Her eyes softened and she placed her hand on his chest, "Poe."

"Please, Maia." He pleaded.

"At least take Rey." She conceded, "She should get off the base and she is much more talented than I can ever hope to be."

He agreed and then pulled her into his arms, "Sorry, I just. . . it's been rough."

"You know I just want to help."

"I know. I'm still getting used to that. I'd feel better if you were here, safe, this time at least. Next time, I will bring you along."

She beamed, "That's all I ask."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, work has been crazy and inspiration has been low. But I've got a few easy weeks and I hope to get a few more chapters out before April when my life will get busy again. Thanks for your patience.


	12. Chapter 12

"You haven't been home in over twenty years, why do you want to go back?"  
It was late, her friends were leaving in the morning. Poe's question didn't surprise her, but the almost vulnerable tone in which he asked was surprising.

She grabbed his face, "This is my home, you are my home. That is just a place I used to run from. I don't want to go back  _to go_  back, I want to go back to  _have_  your back."

His smile was one of those smiles that filled her with warmth and hope.  _Your fate is sealed._ She didn't mean to jerk away from him but the whispers had taken her by surprise. She hadn't thought they could reach her here, she was supposed to be safe with Poe.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up." He grabbed her hand and ran his fingers over her knuckles, stopping at her ring, "I don't suppose you're ever going to tell me everything?"

"Maybe I'll float to the surface and talk to you someday flybird, but not today."

"That's all I ask." He leaned over and kissed her and she almost felt bad about what she was planning on doing.

* * *

Tel had fixed up a cargo ship and loaded it with a few crates of blasters and explosives and various supplies for the trip. He said they could land in the port near his family's house and go from there. Rey asked if she could fly and Poe almost let her, but pulled rank because it had been awhile since he had flown anything successfully and he wanted to prove that he could.

Rey seemed to understand, but she also seemed a little nervous. He clapped her on the shoulder, "Everything will be fine Rey, this will be easy."

She nodded, but didn't say anything. BB-8 beeped at him from down the ramp, he was being left behind because he would stick out too much at the trading post. "Bye buddy, we'll be back before you know it." BB-8 still beeped worriedly, Poe rubbed his little head affectionately and walked up the ramp to the cockpit. Maia said she wasn't coming to see them off and had already said her goodbyes in private the night before. He did take one look back to see if he could see a mop of golden hair, but he didn't.

"Bring everyone back Dameron." Leia said as soon as he put on the communication headset.

"Don't worry General Organa, I've got a good feeling about this."

It would take about five hours to get all the way to Terenai 5. Rey sat in the co-pilot seat and studied the controls for a moment before she started helping out. They talked about this model and how silly they thought the capacitors on the hyperdrive seemed to put a strain on the cooling system for some reason. Rey had some ideas about that and said when they got back she wanted to take a closer look at it.

She looked back at the cargo hold where their other three companions were chatting happily. Rose and Finn seemed to be teasing Tel about something to do with his family. She smiled softly and turned back around, "I'm glad Finn's happy."

"They all do seem pretty happy. They've found their place here and so have you."

Rey looked out the window forlornly, "Jedi training is, isolating, but I'm glad to be here with my friends. It makes me feel like I can actually do some good besides just being a Jedi."

This was getting more personal than their conversations had ever been. Poe shifted in his seat and got up, "Let's go talk to them and see if we can come up with a plan. I want to be as prepared as possible."

Tel gave them the basic layout of the town through a holo he had brought with him. Poe was surprised at the size of the trading post. He had always imagined it was more like the small towns on Yavin 4, but Tel explained there had been some new growth in the last ten years.

"About 50,000 people live in the main port, maybe 5,000 more in the surrounding area." Tel pointed out the warehouse they were meeting in in the west of the town and the areas they needed to avoid.

"Maybe someone should go around the back?" A quiet voice said. Everyone jumped away from the sound. Maia had stood up from behind a crate and was looking at the holo with a thoughtful look. Everyone started yelling that she shouldn't surprise people like that, what was she doing here, how long had she been there, ect. Except Rey, she didn't seem surprised at all.

'So that's why she was nervous.' Poe thought before stepping forward, cursing himself for not seeing this coming, "I should have known you were going to do this."

"Probably. You've known me a long time Flybird, did you really think I wouldn't do something like this."

They were too far out to turn around and fuel was something they couldn't waste and Maia knew that. He decided he would be angry later, it's not like he could officially reprimand her or demote her. For now, he would use her skills and yell later. They worked out a plan, Maia not contributing any input, just studying the map intently.

The proximity alert beeped and Rey and Poe went to the cockpit before they could come out of hyperspace. Everyone filed into the cockpit to get a look at the planet. They dropped out of hyperspace a distance away. There was a collective intake of breath, none of them had seen a planet quite like this before.

"It's very. . . red." Rose observed.

The planet was covered in red, clay-like dirt, large cracks on the surface made the entire planet look like it was on the verge of breaking into pieces. The large ocean on one side of the planet was also a reddish-brown color close to the shore but blended out into a blue far out to sea.

"I'd go mad looking at this much red." Finn said.

"A lot of people do go crazy here." Tel grumbled. "You'll see a lot of people suffering on the streets. It's best to ignore them.

The red dirt that covered the planet covered everything in a layer of red dust. The buildings blended in with the landscape making them nearly invisible in the glare of the sun. As they landed, Maia and Tel helped everyone wrap clothes around their heads and the bottom half of their faces. In the red light of the sun, their blonde hair turned scarlet and their skin took on a ruddy complexion. They all looked dirty despite having been on the planet for all of ten minutes.

Maia wrapped a hand around Poe's bicep, "Don't let go." She whispered.

The city was tightly packed despite the large open areas surrounding it. It rested on the shores of the murky brown sea. It smelled of rust and humans and something sickly sweet none of the visitors could place.

"What is that smell?" Rey asked.

"The algae farms. The red algae that turns the sea to blood smells like this while it's being fermented into Dennon Wine." Maia's grip on his arm tightened, "We called it sweet blood."

Poe winced, "Cheerful."

"I've heard of that." Finn spoke up, "It's illegal in the core worlds because of its addictiveness."

This place, with its red dirt and sweet smell was enough to make an entire population notoriously eccentric and criminals. The distribution of Dennon Wine was highly lucrative and illegal throughout the galaxy. Gangs ruled this place and he doubted even the First Order would be able to control such a place. But a spark of the Resistance was breeding here and they had to check it out.

In a crowded marketplace, music from street performers and the voices of traders blended cacophonously. Music seemed to imbibe the city and he could see why Maia and Tel were so attached to it. Beyond the dirt was beauty, you just had to listen for it.

Children covered in red dirt weaved in and out of the crowd, Tel waved them all off with a few choice words. In the shadows, people drank out of small bottles or whispered, their hair in patches and their eyes far away.

Poe locked eyes with a middle aged woman who's skin was so dirty she looked like she had been born with red skin. She had golden eyes like Maia, with the same far away look Maia had sometimes. It struck him that maybe Maia herself had suffered from this insanity before she had left.

Maia's hand slipped from his arm and he went to grab her but she was already off, headed down an alley. She stopped in front of a rusty door and kept going. Poe knew they should get back, but he promised he wouldn't let her go and so he just followed, wondering where she was leading him. They had talked about someone going around the back but had decided it would be too suspicious and could make it seem like an ambush.

She kept going through a winding series of alleys until she hit a dead end. He thought that would be the end of it but she quickly scrambled up a wall to the roof.

"I can't do that." He called up to her.

She sat on the edge of the roof, "I can wait."

He felt around, there were a few handholds in the brick that would help him up. "We should stay with the others."

"We're scouting."

He hauled himself up, she had made it look much easier than it was. She kept going and he couldn't order her to do what he said so he just went with her. He wondered if she had listened at all to their discussions on the ship or she had just been coming up with her own plan the whole time.

Maia led him across roofs, knowing exactly where it was easy to jump across. She stopped on a particular roof with a small shed on top near in one corner. She went around the back and squeezed herself between the wall and ledge. She reached down in a hidden space and pulled out a small bundle.

"What's this?"

She unwrapped it revealing several small rocks in a variety of colors. "My rocks."

"Are they valuable?"

"They are to me." She handed him the bundle and reached back in. He could see Maia as a child, holding these rocks and wondering where they came from. They were probably one of the few non-red things she had seen in her childhood. Under a few of the rocks was a gold chain with a red stone attached, one that matched the ring she wore.

Maia turned back around, he saw her pocket something small, "This was your secret hiding spot?" He asked.

"I slept here some nights, when I thought it was safe. This was home."

He reached out with his free hand and grabbed hers. She knew she had bad memories of this place. But he also remembered her saying he was her home. Her admission of that had made his heart leap. He had always considered Yavin 4 home but maybe he could change his position on that.

"We need to get back to the others." He gave her the small package.

Maia led them along more roofs until they got to the warehouse. They pried open a window and slipped in quietly. They were on a small platform about the main floor of the warehouse. Tel, Finn, Rose and Rey were talking to a small group of natives armed with a variety of blasters. The leader had a defensive posture and Tel looked like he was pleading with him.

"This isn't good." Maia murmured close to his ear. "That's Tel's ex-boyfriend, they don't get along."

"How do you know that?" He asked.

"Force stuff. Also, Tel used to have a picture of them but I helped him burn it a few years ago." She whispered back.

Someone in the other group looked up and saw Maia and Poe crouching above them and pulled their blaster. In the span of a breath, everyone pulled a weapon and Rey turned on her new lightsaber that crackled blue with the broken crystal. There was yelling and Tel was desperately trying to diffuse the situation.

They clambered down awkwardly from the platform, Poe's blaster still trained on them. Maia was the only one without a weapon and she approached cautiously, hands up. The same man who had spotted them earlier exclaimed, "You!" And retrained his weapon on Maia. "We all thought you were dead!"

"Nice to see you again Jak."

"You owe me money."

Her hands went palm up, "It's been like  _twenty years_ Jak, can't we just forget about it?"

Jak pulled down on the collar of his shirt, revealing an ugly scar on his collarbone that continued under his shirt, "You might want to forget, but I can't and neither do the Dennon Collective. You show your face around here and they might kill you before I do."

She lowered her hands, "I was a child, I didn't mean to steal from you. I wanted off the planet and that was the only way I knew how."

The leader spoke up, "This is who the Resistance works with, someone who steals from their friends?"

"Technically, she's not part of the Resistance." Finn spoke up, "Technically, she's a Jedi."

Their guns lowered a fraction and the all looked between Rey, who was still threatening them with her lightsaber and Maia, weaponless and pleading.

"A. . . Jedi?" Jak sounded unconvinced.

"Remember that old man who caught me and you kept running? That man, was Luke Skywalker. I trained as a Jedi for ten years, I survived the Jedi Massascre and I have fought Kylo Ren on multiple occasions and survived." She exaggerated a little bit, knowing they wouldn't know the difference. "Rey had defeated Kylo Ren in battle twice now. If you want help defeating the First Order here, then you can have no better help than us."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her small cloth with the rocks, "I can give you this." She offered out the necklace with the red stone.

Jak lowered his gun completely and took the dangling necklace in his hand, "And you have the ring."

She conceded, "And I have the ring." She let go of the necklace and worked the ring off her finger. "I would give everything up to defeat the First Order, what are you willing to give up?"

He pocketed the jewelry. "This doesn't make us even Maia. But it will do for now."

She nodded and backed up to Poe again. The leader turned back to the others, gave Tel a look up and down and then jerked his head towards the back of the room, "Come with us."


	13. Chapter 13

As they followed their new allies through a series of tunnels under the city, Poe fell into step with Maia, "Any chance you can tell me the story behind all that?"

She looked around before leaning into him to talk quietly, "I was looking for a way off the planet. My mother had gotten mixed in with one of the gangs and there was a man who came around her house, he was not a. . . good man." Maia shook her head as if she was trying to shake out the memories. "Jak and I were on the streets, sometimes we performed together to try to get some money but he's terrible and can't carry a tune to  _literally_ save his life.

"We had a contract with the Dennon Collective, who had it out for the man my mother was involved with. We were supposed to steal some stuff from him, including that necklace from my mother and the ring from him. In return we would get money that we would split and we could start saving to get off world. I had the jewelry and the papers when we were escaping and that's when I ran into Luke. I didn't think, I left everything in my hiding spot and left with Luke. It was wrong of me to do that, but I also thought that Jak knew where my hiding spot was and could get the things for himself. I didn't know any of that would happen."

He squeezed her arm comfortingly, he was still weary of these people and didn't want them to know too much about them. "You couldn't have known. You also couldn't have known that he would be here of all places. Let's just hope we can get through this without him turning on us."

"I don't think he will, I can feel it. But he is teetering on the edge, try not to push him."

"Do you know what you were stealing or why they wanted the jewelry?"

"I was too small to know." She looked down at her hand. There was a small pale band of skin where the ring had once sat on her finger. She felt strange without it, she had been holding onto it for so long it felt like it had become a part of her. But it was oddly freeing, it had always been a reminder of bad times in her life.

_"The bad things that you survive make you who you are, make you stronger. Don't hide from the horrors, wear them like a badge of honor." A hand much larger than hers put the ring in her hand and closed her fist over it._

Poe pulled her out of the memory, "Something's still bothering me about all this. What are the chances the First Order sets up shop on your home planet? Did Kylo Ren know where you are from?"

"I never told him, he never asked. I assume he wasn't interested. At the Temple, none of us talked about where we were from because those were places we would probably never return to."

Before he could respond, the group had collectively stopped at an ancient looking metal door. "The first colonists lived underground." Tel explained. "These are the last things left of our ancestors."

The leader, Mikal, knocked a short pattern on the door. It slid open slowly, another man struggled to push it open. Mikal clapped him on the shoulder and they entered well-lit room. There was a holo table in the middle of the room but it seemed to be made of spare parts and the image of the city it projected flickered and occasionally went out completely.

About five other people were gathered in the room, doing various tasks. Everyone jumped to attention when their group entered the room. Poe wondered if ten people were all they had fighting the First Order.

"Everyone, these people are from the Resistance, they are here to help us." Mikal ran through proper introductions of his group. Maia didn't recognize any of them and they didn't seem to recognize her, Jak must have been an outlier. Poe introduced all of them, "And our Jedi Master, Maia and her Apprentice Rey."

Maia wanted to correct him, but they were trying to exude an air of power so she stayed silent. She was not a Jedi, she had made that perfectly clear to him on multiple occasions. She was uncomfortable with lying about it but silence would have to do. Murmurs went through the small group at their introduction, most seemed skeptical but one or two seemed to believe them.

There was one woman with dark skin and curly hair and she was different than the others. She had some Force sensitivity. Maia wondered where she had come from and why she had come here of all places.

They gathered around the improvised holo table. Jak slapped the side and the layout of the city appeared again. The insurgent First Order group had taken up with the Dennon Collective gang to the north of the city and were hiding out in the Dennon Wine fermenting house.

In the last few months they had bombed a building where children had been learning and blamed it on a Resistance mission gone wrong, assassinated the old head of the peace keepers and installed a new one that turned a blind eye to their activities and helped them eliminate other gangs in the city. The city was on the edge of fear, waiting for the next tragedy.

"Why don't we blow up the fermenting house?" Finn suggested.

The Teranians shook their heads vehemently, even Tel. "That's not on the table." Mikal told him.

"Why not? We could take out both the First Order, the gang and the Dennon Wine factory in one blow."

"It's more complicated than that."

"It doesn't seem like that to us." Poe interrupted, "Dennon wine is illegal and anything we can do to stop the First Order should be done."

"What about our families?" Someone else spoke up, "Our families, our neighbors work in the fermenting house or gathering algae on the sea. We destroy the fermenting house, we destroy their lively hoods."

"So do you want to take control of it? Use it for your purposes?"

The rebel group exchanged glances with each other. Mikal put his hands on the holo table, "You don't live here, if we can take control, we can change it, maybe. Give our families and friends better lives. The man who controls the factory is a First Order sympathizer and he has thrown his lot in with the Red Death gang and the other gangs are suffering from it. We just need to take out this man and the gang members he directly supports."

"It's actually good that you are here Maia." Jak spoke up, "We need to know what happened to that data stick we stole all those years ago."

She looked around the room, "Why?"

"The man we stole it from was Braxis V'ron, the owner of the fermentation house. His family has held it for three generations. He's expanded the market for Dennon Wine 100 times what it used to be since he came to power. We made a copy of his off-world bank information and the recipe for making Dennon Wine and a bunch of other things."

"How do you know all this?"

Jak grimaced, "I think I would remember what they told me as they tortured me for failing."

Her heart sunk, there was nothing she could do to take away the pain her past actions had caused. Jak would always bear the scars of her mistakes. He had been her friend and she had thrown him away. "I don't have the stick."

"You have the jewelry but not the data stick with the information? Typical." Jak scoffed at her, turning his back to the table and running his hands through his hair as he stalked around.

"I dropped it twenty years ago, I have no idea what happened to it."

Poe had seen her pocket something else on that roof, he wondered why she was lying to them.

"We can get the information once we take them out." Mikal placated his comrade, "It was a good thought Jak but we can figure something else out."

Maia pulled out her small cloth of rocks, her finger brushing against the data stick. She sorted through the rocks and handed one to Poe, a small black one that was rough on one side but had been worn smooth by the sea on the other. He winked and pocketed it and her heart skipped a short beat.

Everyone was pointing at the map and arguing, she hated this part so she wandered away. She swiped an old data pad from a chair and put it under her jacket.

"I suppose you think you need that." A soft voice said next to her. It was the woman with the Force sensitivity. She was much cleaner than the others and her smile was mischievous, Maia already liked her.

"Are you turning me in?"

"Not this time. Rika Dravvad, I'm from Chandrila."

"How does a good Chandrilan girl end up in a place like this?"

Rika's eyes slid back to their friends around the holo table, "A good friend and a sense of what's right."

"How often do you get that sense of what's right?"

"I'm certainly not getting it now." Rika turned back around to face the group but kept talking to her, "I know you're a Jedi and all, but I know when someone is lying to me, I hope you have a good reason."

"I hope so too."

Rika looked at her thoughtfully and Maia felt a small tug of the Force, so faint it was barely there but Rika was trying to reach her. This would work on someone who wasn't strong with the Force and Maia could understand her being a valuable ally to this group. Rika retreated, nodding her head softly as she rejoined the group.

Things were going to be interesting here.


	14. Chapter 14

They gathered together back on their small ship, there was still a lot to talk about with the other group but Poe had agreed to supply some better guns and some explosives for now. Everyone was a little tense, the rebel group didn’t seem to be very open to their suggestions, just their weapons.

“None of us like this, right?” Finn asked as soon as they were on the ship, “This isn’t great.”

Poe put his hands on his hips, “Yeah, I don’t like their methods either but we have to do what we have to do.”

“We shouldn’t let the factory keep making this wine though.” Finn argued, “Right?”

“I think it’s more complicated than that.” Rose said softly, putting her hand on his arm, “There isn’t much here, we take that away from them, what’s going to happen to this place? Maybe they can change it.”

Maia pulled out her swiped data pad, shocking the group, “Did you steal that?” Finn demanded

“I’ve always had this.” She pulled out the data stick.

“Is that the data stick they were asking about!” Finn nearly yelled, not believing what he was seeing.

“Why would you even think that?” Maia responded, putting the data stick in and waiting for it to load. It was twenty years old and there was a chance this wouldn’t work. It took a few minutes, everyone watched with baited breath. After a long moment, data popped up on the screen. She looked at it confused, “It’s nonsense.”

Poe looked at it, “What is this?” He took the pad and stared at it.

Tel looked over his shoulder, “It’s in our language. I can read it.” Poe showed it to him, and Tel tapped a few things on the screen and everything shifted into basic. “Can’t you read?” Tel asked her

She shrugged her shoulders, “A few words, I never went to school here. I can read basic.”

Poe looked over the data, there were bank numbers and a very large sum of money. This was twenty years old, if that money was still there and had grown since, it would be enough money to fund the Resistance for years to come. “Do you think the man you took this from knew you did?”

Maia looked at him, clearly at a loss, “I have no way of knowing.”

“Would Jak know?”

She intensified her look of ‘I don’t know’ at him and he backed down, he was asking for too much too fast. A different file caught his eye, one labeled _Maia’na V_. “We aren’t sharing this with our new friends, for now.”

“Is that a good idea?” Finn asked, “I don’t think they would take well to any kind of betrayal.”

“For now, Finn, we’re just going to keep this to ourselves.” He turned off the data pad and tucked it under his arm. Rey was regarding him suspiciously, but no one else seemed to notice. They all seemed to be slightly disgruntled with this decision, Maia wasn’t paying attention anymore. He was getting used to people being upset with him.

“I’m going to look through this more. Tel, I think it didn’t translate everything, can you help me?”

The two men went into the cockpit, Rey slipped in as well before the door closed. “What’s going on?”

“We might be able to get a lot of money for the Resistance Rey, we need to look into it.”

She nodded, “I get that, but what else?”

“There’s nothing else.”

“Do you try lying like this to Maia?”

Poe had to admit that he had never actually tried to lie to her, she knew he was going to do it before he even knew he was going to. Why hadn’t she said anything this time? Rey had her hands on her hips and was giving him a stare down.

“Just give me a minute.” He took the data pad out and opened the file that had what he thought was Maia’s name on it. Reading over it, it was a file, clearly on Maia at the age of nine, complete with a picture of her, taken at a distance. Her golden hair was short and choppy and she was covered in red dirt. The file seemed to be official adoption papers, which he found odd. A rich man in a town like this had no need to go through any proper channels.

There was information about her he doubted even Maia knew, blood type, age, birthday, family name. At the bottom there was a note, different than the other information, _Force sensitive._ Someone had known she was force sensitive before Luke had found her.  

Poe looked up to Tel, “What do you know about the owner of the factory?”

“He’s rich, he’s powerful, his family does what they want.”

“That’s it?”

“What else do you need to know?”

“Why would he be interested in Maia?” He showed Tel the datapad.

Tel’s face had a hint of disgust as he read through the file, “I can only think of one reason a man such as Braxis V’ron would be interested in a child.”

Rey shuddered and tucked herself into a corner, “What is this about?”

“This man, V’ron, he knew Maia was Force sensitive, how would he have known that?”

None of them had an answer for that. “Maia might know.” Rey suggested softly. “Or-“

“Or what?”

Rey dithered for a moment before speaking, “The rebel group, there was a woman, she’s Force sensitive, I could kind of sense it. Maia did too, she had to. The woman, Rika, I think, I felt her use the Force on Maia.”

Fear spiked in Poe momentarily, Maia had been acting unusually quiet since they had arrived at the rebel’s hideout. Could she have been influenced by this woman? He sat down in the pilots’ chair and ran his hands through his hair, “Don’t tell anyone, don’t discuss it with Maia, none of this leaves this room.”

Tel nodded but Rey looked confused, “Why are we hiding things from our friends and allies? I don’t like this.”

“I don’t like it either Rey, but please just trust me on this. Everything will be fine.”

Rey crossed her arms, “This isn’t a good idea.”

Someone knocked on the door, “Uh, Poe, Maia just left.” Rose’s voice was muffled by the door.

Poe sprang from his chair, “Delete that file.” He told Tel before he opened the door. Finn and Rose were standing in the cargo bay alone, neither of them looking happy that they were being excluded from this conversation.

“She just walked out.” Rose said, “We tried to get her to stay but she said she wasn’t going far.”

There had been something in the back of her mind since she had stepped foot on the planet. It brought her back to when she was smaller. Her childhood memories had always been blurry and she thought that coming back here might make them clearer, but they just seemed to just get darker. The Force swirled in this place, full of darkness and pain. There was something dark here and it was feeding on the sorrows of her people. She hadn’t gone far, she wasn’t a liar. The stars weren’t as clear as the used to be, the lights of the city washed them out of the sky.

“Maia!”

It was Poe, it was always Poe. But he was different, the Force worked around him differently, it was much darker than usual. It seemed like everything on this planet was turning away from the light. She wanted to be happy to see him, but her stomach sank instead.

“Is everything okay?” He asked, putting a hand on her back. “Why did you leave the ship?”

She looked up at the stars, “The stars are speaking, they aren’t happy.”

Poe let out a huffing kind of chuckle and ducked his head, “I’m getting a lot of that lately. You aren’t too mad at me, are you?”

“The stars say probably, yes.” She gave him a side eye and saw the small soft smile on his face that she had only seen him direct towards her.

“This will be over soon and we can go back home.”

“I don’t like it here.”

“I know.” He rested his head against hers, “I know.”

She let the tenseness in her shoulders relax for a moment as he held her. Poe always held the darkness at bay for her.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.” A voice said to the side. Poe jumped away from her, reaching for his blaster that he didn’t have on him. It was Rika, she had a hood up to hide her face but Maia could sense her. “We need to talk.”


	15. Chapter 15

"Not you." Rika clarified as soon as Poe motioned for their ship. "Just her, and the laser sword girl."

"Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea." Poe took up a defensive position next to Maia. She reached out softly with the Force and tugged on Rey to get her outside. She hadn't done this in a long time, usually she left Rey alone, but as she reached for the girl she felt something else reaching for her too. A darkness like the one that surrounded the town was reaching for her too. Fear gripped her momentarily, but her reach was broken. Rey exited the ship, her lightsaber unlit.

Maia turned her attention to the younger girl for the first time in a long time. She had suspected Rey was struggling with her place in the Force, but she hadn't felt the dark side actively reaching for her. It wanted her and this place was only making it stronger.

"What are you doing here?" Rey asked Rika as soon as she walked exited the ship.

"I would like to talk with you and your master, alone."

Maia didn't know who she wanted to be alone with the least, Rika or Rey. The darkness that seemed to swirl around them focused on the other two women and filled her with dread. Poe saw Rey and retreated into the ship but she knew he would stay right next to the door.

"What do you want Rika Dravvad of Chandrila?" Maia asked as Rey stood next to her.

"Since I was a child, I've known things about people they didn't want me to know. It's given me a lot of advantages in this life and I want it to give me more. I was hoping that you could teach me a few tricks."

They exchanged glances, "The Force isn't for tricks, it's so much bigger than that." Maia said coolly, "We can't just 'teach you a few tricks.'"

"I don't need all the mumbo jumbo that goes with the Force, I just need more tools to help my friends."

Rey turned her back to Rika and leaned into Maia, "Maybe, we could just help her out."

"That's not what the Force is for." She responded firmly. She didn't like any of this and she wasn't going to change positions now. "The Force is much bigger and more complicated than a few tricks. One thoughtless action can send you spiraling towards the dark side without proper training."

Rey turned around, "I can teach you a few things."

"Rey!"

The younger woman stepped forward, ignoring her, "We need more help Maia, this is how we are going to get it."

Maia huffed and crossed her arms, "Fine, do whatever you want." She looked back to the ship and didn't want to go back there either. Under the open skies of her birthplace she suffocated under the weight of the stars. She walked off, back into the city, Rey let her go without protest. She could disappear easily in this city and she was already out of their sight.  _Don't let go._ She had said this morning, but she was always the one walking away.

The darkness was hard to pinpoint in the city, it seemed to imbibe the red dirt and every whisper from every house. When she was a child, there hadn't been a name for it, just the feeling that she needed to leave. Years later, it was even more oppressive than she remembered.

Her feet took her through the city. It was much the same as it had been, dirty and ramshackle, she hadn't been surprised that her things were still there, this place would never change. But maybe it could. These group of rebels wanted to change it, why shouldn't she help them? She stopped and looked back, maybe Rey was right too, doing good in the galaxy was what they were supposed to be doing. Rey was the next Jedi and all that, it wouldn't hurt for Maia to listen to her. She found her way down into the tunnels. She had never been in them before today, they had been too scary for her younger self. Down there, she searched out the light and it led her to the old door they had been to earlier. She knocked and nothing happened. Movement next to the door caught her eye. A small droid no bigger than her fist was looking at her from a small alcove on the wall. It beeped at her and she beeped back. The door opened a crack and Jak poked his head out, "What are you doing here alone?"

"Can I talk to you?"

Jak opened the door and let her into their hideout.

* * *

Poe had fallen asleep waiting for the girls to come back to the ship. Tel had disappeared off to his family's house, Finn and Rose were asleep on cots in the cargo hold. He was jostled awake by Rose, her face full of concern, "Where are Rey and Maia?"

"What?" He rubbed at his eyes.

"Rey and Maia aren't here."

When her words registered with him, he shot up, "What do you mean they aren't here?"

Before Rose had a chance to explain, Tel appeared, out of breath and sweating, "We have a big problem." He pointed outside the ship.

Rose and Poe walked out into the rising sun and saw in the sky, a First Order destroyer.

* * *

_Something tugged on the edge of her shirt, familiar and insisting. Maia turned around and there was a small boy with bright red hair and eyes so green you would swear they were made of grass. His face was solemn as he looked up at her. He waved her down to him and she knelt to hear what he had to say. She listened as he whispered what he had done and how he needed her help. She nodded and took his hand._

_They walked through the halls of the Jedi Temple together to the meditation room. Ben Solo was sitting there, and so was Rey, their hands barely touching. As soon as she walked in she felt his anger directed towards her. It swirled around her and the small hand in hers slipped away. Rey reached out for her but the room faded into darkness._

She sat up in the bed the rebel group had given her for the night. Her and Jak had talked about their childhoods and Maia had told him what happened after her disappearance. He believed her now, but he wasn't forgiving her yet. Talking didn't absolve her of guilt but she did feel a little better.

After her disappearance, Jak's life had been difficult. He paid off their debt to the Dennon Collective then worked as an algae collector until recently. His son had been killed in the blast set off by the First Order group. He took up arms against them and wanted them off his planet. Maia asked if he was interested in fighting a bigger fight and he said he hadn't thought about it.

_"We used to think a lot about getting off this planet."  
_

_Jak nodded, "That was before. This is my home, I don't have time to think about other people right now."  
_

The small group of rebels were gathered around their holo table, whispering and pointing. Above their heads she saw a familiar shape, a star destroyer. She rose slowly, reaching out in the Force and was met with a wall of anger and hate.  _He_ was here and he was angry. Poe had been right, this had been a trap.

There was a knock at the door, it must have been the correct knock because they opened it without question.

Rika walked in and light a familiar crackling blue light saber in her hand and cut down the man who let her in. Others filed in after her and started shooting the rebel group. They were unprepared for an attack and all of them fell in front of her.

Rika stormed up to her, "Well Jedi Master, you didn't see this coming did you?"


	16. Chapter 16

Rey looked down at the red planet, she was unsure why she had agreed to go with Rika. She should have known it was a trap.

Or maybe she had known somewhere deep down in her that Rika would lead her back to him. She still felt him often, reaching for her, asking for her. But she had shut him out for the most part.

He was standing beside her now, hands clasped behind his back almost nervously, and yet the picture of patience. "This planet must remind you of Jakku."

"Not really."

Rika spoke up from behind them, "The other one has been taken care of, like you said."

Ice gripped Rey's heart, what had she done to Maia?

"That will be all Nyla."

There was a short pause before the other woman left as silently as she had appeared. Rey swore she became one with the shadows almost. She turned to Ben, "Where is Maia? What have you done with her?"

"You still think me a monster?" Rey didn't respond, "She's safe, she will be safe."

Again, Rey wondered about their history. Maia had always been so vague but she got the impression they were at least friends. "I thought the past had to die, isn't she a part of your past."

"She didn't deserve what happened to her. She was innocent and she suffered the worst of it. It is a regret I have had for a long time. When I saw her on Starkiller base, I thought she was a ghost haunting me, speaking in riddles, but she was just a crazy woman. She deserves better than what the Resistance can give her. So do you."

"I decide what I deserve, not you."

He nodded his head as if conceding her point, "There is something about this planet you should know about."

* * *

 

Poe ended the communication with the Resistance. They couldn't get in contact with Leia for some reason and so Chewie was flying the Falcon to try and help them. They were stretched too thin to send a lot of help, so they were advised to lay low and stay out of sight.

Advised being the key word as there was no way in hell Poe was going to do that with both Rey and Maia missing. Rose put a hand on his shoulder, "They're Jedi, they'll be fine."

Poe wasn't so sure, he wanted to trust them but he had a pit in his stomach that told him they were in trouble. "Thanks Rose."

Noise in the cargo hold drew their attention. Tel and Finn stuck their heads in the cockpit, "We have bad news."

Poe turned around to face them, "Great, I was just thinking about how this could get worse. What is it?"

Finn told them how they had found the rebel hideout destroyed and everyone in it was murdered by either blaster fire or by lightsaber. "We think it might have been Kylo Ren." Finn concluded.

"Did you see either of the girls?"

"No, they weren't among the dead, but Ren wouldn't have killed them surely. That means they were probably taken to the ship."

"Then why is it still here?"

Tel motioned out the window with his blaster, "There are troopers patroling the city, doing searches. They are probably looking for us, we need to go now."

"Go where? We can't put your family in danger." Rose spoke up.

"My sister, she will know where to take us to safety."

* * *

 

She wasn't on a hill this time. She was on a plain with tall brown grass. In the distance was a small wooden house surrounded by squat trees. This was so, normal. She almost thought she wasn't dreaming. Until she turned and saw the figured cloacked in black standing next to her. Startled, she stumbled back and fell to the ground, the grasses covering her vision.

Maia awoke in a cell. Rika had knocked her unconcious quickly, while Maia had still been trying to process what was going on. The Force was whispering to her here, that he was near and she was in trouble. As if she hadn't figured that out yet.

The cell was well lit, utilitarian in design. Just how she would have imagined a First Order cell to look like. Her dream disturbed her, she had never dreamt of that before, a house on a plain on a planet she had never seen before.

On the opposite wall was a darkened window and when she looked at it, her dream played like it was a screen. The brown grass blew in the wind and the door to the house swung open. Maia had never seen anything like it before. She got up from the bench and went to touch it, wondering if it would ripple like water or be hard like glass. As her hand reached for the scene and a figure stepped out of the house, a light came on behind the glass. The scene disappeared and Maia was reaching for Rika who was watching her behind the glass.

"I see you're awake." Rika sounded bored. She had changed out of her Teranian clothes and into a black outfit with red trim and several belts crossing her body.

"Who are you, really?"

"Rika Dravvad is my real name, but I go by Nyla Ren now. I arrived at the Jedi Temple a few weeks before the massacre. I'm not surprised you don't remember me, you always were in your own little world Maia."

Her heart pounded in her ears, how could she have forgotten one of her own, a child she would have assumed dead in the massacre? Looking at the woman, she had no recollection of anyone arriving at the temple in those weeks. It had been nearly ten years, people could be forgotten. She had spent years haunted by Rika's death, not knowing who she was or that she was alive.

"You went with him."

"It was preferable to death."

"How many others lived?"

Rika raised an eyebrow at her, "Did you not know about the Knights of Ren? We heard the call and we answered, the rest of you had to die. We all thought you were dead, Kylo Ren said he had killed you."

That surprised her as much as Rika's sudden betrayal. Why had he protected her? Or had he not wanted to seem weak? This was all too much to think about. "What's going on?"

"An old friend of yours wants to see you."

She reached out through the Force for Poe, Rey, anyone who might be able to feel her, but a wall of darkness surrounded her. No one knew where she was or what was going on. The door slid open and a figured walked in and took a place beside Rika

"Maia'an, it is good to see you again."

Braxis V'ron leered at her from the otherside of the glass. He looked much older than the last time she had laid eyes on him. His hair was mostly gray with a a few streaks of black still holding on. His eyes had the same golden gleam to them, the one that had scared her so much as a child.

"You look just like your mother."

She stumbled back, his words were filled with darkness and malice. She felt suffocated by his very presence. This was the darkness she had felt on the planet magnified and focused directly on her. She looked at Rika for some kind of sign that the other woman felt it too, but she just looked bored again.

"Rika, what is he doing here?"

But the woman ignored her and turned to Braxis, "Do we have an agreement."

"I believe so. I will take her off your hands. I tried to do that years ago, but Skywalker got her first."

She ran to the door, put her hands on it and tried to feel a way to open the door with the Force, but it was still blocked. The darkness was surpressing her connection with the Force in a way she didn't know was possible. She didn't know how to get out of this.

* * *

 

"Maybe you've seen it, or felt it already." Kylo was looking down on the planet, "Under the surface, in caves deep beneath the city, there is an old sith shrine. The V'ron family is the last in a long line of caretakers for the shrine. They have learned many things from the shrine and have been using the Force to supress the wills of the entire planet to their submission."

Revulsion shook through Rey, "That's disgusting."

"Yes, it is."

Rey was surprised he would agree with her. "What are you going to do?"

"Destroy it."

"Really?"

He looked at her, "Yes. I meant it when I said let it all die. The Sith have to die as much as the Jedi do. What V'ron is doing on this planet cannot be allowed to continue. Rika has brought him on the ship, he will watch as we fire on it from orbit and then we will kill him as well."

Rey couldn't say she disagreed with this plan. If this V'ron man was the cause of the sorrow on that planet then everyone would be better off without him, but it still left her uneasy. "It is safe to fire from orbit, for the people in the city?"

"Of course."

She sensed a lie, somewhat of one. "We can evacuate the city, just in case. Surely we can do that."

"There's no need." He sounded final. Rey wondered what had happened to him in the time since she had last saw him. He had been so full of rage, but all of that seemed to be gone, or well hidden from her.

"Why am I here?"

"I didn't expect you to be here. Nyla is a very resourceful spy, she knows how to feed tantalizing information to the right people. We expected to get some members of the Resistance, not you or Maia. But it works out well for us that you are."

Rey was confused. She had imagined this confrontation to be much more violent, not 'let's save this planet from its oppressors.' This was not the Kylo Ren she had expected to find on this ship. She had expected to find an angry one, someone she could fight and defeat. But this, she didn't know if she could defeat this.

He turned away from her, "Find Nyla and tell her to bring V'ron to me immediately." He demanded of a trooper gaurding the door. The two troopers left the room quickly and Kylo returned to her side, "Let's get this over with."

* * *

 

They put cuffs on her and Braxis wrapped a firm hand around her upper arm, "Leave quickly." Rika said, "Ren will be wondering where you are soon and I have to move now while he's distracted."

"Thank you Rika, good work. I will see you back on the surface soon."

Rika nodded her head and left the room. Braxis took a few steps and started to drag her along with him so she did the only thing she could think of and went limp. He cursed at her and motioned for two troopers to help him. They didn't respond to his commands, so he turned back to her and she felt the darkness compelling her to move her legs. She got up, against her will and he was able to drag her along the hallways of the star destroyer. "What do you want with me?"

"I need an apprentice and even an unwilling one is better than none. Teranai 5 belongs to me and I will not let it fall into the hands of the light."

"How can you do this? What power is this?"

"The Sith existed on Teranai 5 in secret for generations. Their powers, their knowledge, their wisdom is all mine and soon, it can be yours too. It was your destiny, your mother saw that. Don't you want to know where she is now?"

She tried to shake her head, but it felt like she couldn't move her body anymore. But she kept walking, moving with Braxis to an unknown destination. She closed her eyes, blocking out anything he continued to say to her as they walked. The darkness was outside of her, but inside of her was a light, a strength she had always had. She had ignored it for a long time, almost fearing it. But that time was over now. She concentrated on it, on the light, on the thin balance between the light inside and the dark outside.

She opened her eyes and clenched her fists. In a burst of power, she swung her arms around a hit Braxis V'ron in the face. He crumpled and she concentrated the Force on her cuffs and they exploded, freeing her hands.

"No, that shouldn't be possible." Braxis croaked out. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth. She had a million things she wanted to say to this man who had caused this planet so much misery, but she couldn't speak any of them as sobs came up her throat and tears filled her eyes. She force pushed him agianst the wall. "Maia'an, stop this." The darkness pushed back at her but no, this time it would not supress her. But as she looked at him, darkness welled up from inside her and she wanted to kill him. To end the endless suffering of her people, of herself. She threw him against the other wall instead, releasing her hold on him as he slumped unconsciously to the floor.

She felt the darkness he had created lift and wondered if the people on the planet felt it too. Alarms blared around her suddenly and the ship pitched sharply and she was flung against the wall. Something was happening and she had to find Rey and get off this ship now.


	17. Chapter 17

"What do you mean you can't find Nyla, Braxis V'ron or the prisoner?" Kylo Ren demanded, his fists shaking. The bearer of the bad news was a nervous lieutenant who clutched at a small data pad as if it would shield her from his rage.

"Sir, some of the troopers said they saw Nyla and Braxis conversing and then Braxis took the prisoner from her cell. We haven't seen any of them since then."

"Sound the alarms and find them, bring all three of them to me."

The door opened and Nyla entered, "What's going on?" She seemed nonchalant in the face of Kylo Ren's obvious rage.

"Why did you go against my orders? Maia was meant to be kept in the cell until I said. Why did V'ron take her from the cell."

"I told him he could."

"Why?"

Rey watched this exchange from a distance, she knew from his posture that he was going to attack Rika, but Rika seemed unconcerned about it. Her arms were crossed, nowhere near the two lightsabers on her belt, one of which was Rey's. "You lied to everyone for years and told us she was dead. Imagine how surprised I was when she showed up on the planet. You didn't even try to kill her did you? She, and this girl," Rika nodded towards Rey, "Are distractions from the mission of the First Order. Your judgement,  _Supreme Leader,_ is clouded when it comes to them. I took care of one half of the problem and now, you should let me take care of the other half."

He looked back at Rey and then pulled his lightsaber from his belt, "You don't order me around Knight of Ren."

Rika raised her hand with an open palm towards them and then closed it. The ship pitched sharply to the left and both Kylo and Rey went sliding away while Rika remained standing still. Alarms blared through the ship and everything went dark.

* * *

Maia looked over the panel, none of these buttons made any sense to her, but she was sure that this had to be the right panel. She relaxed her shoulders and let the Force guide her. She managed to open a comm link to the shuttle on the planet. "Flybird, are you there?" She tried several times but no one answered, they must have left.

She thought about it for a moment and sent out another communication to anyone in the area. She got a ping back and then a Wookie started screaming at her from speaker. "Chewie, is that you?" He roared back and she smiled, he was always right where they needed him, "We're on the ship, something is wrong, I don't know what to do. Poe and the others are down on the planet." He replyed that he was going to get them. "Okay good, tell them we're here and we are going to meet you soon."

Even as she said the words, she had a feeling they weren't true. She had no idea how to get off this ship, this was not her forte. "May the Force be with you." She said before signing off.

* * *

Tel's sister had lead them through the tunnels under the city, people were streaming through, evacuating the city to avoid the storm troopers. She told them of caves in the mountains to the east that they would stay in until the First Order left. Poe tried to convince her that they wouldn't leave just because everyone was gone but she wouldn't hear it. Chewie got a hold of Finn through his communicator and they told him where to land safely so they could board the Falcon.

Tel said goodbye to his family and tried to convince them to leave the planet with them, but none of them would do it. Tel was distressed that they wouldn't listen to him but he seemed to resign himself to their stubborness. Chewie met them outside the Falcon and told them that he had talked to Maia and she was on the ship with Rey.

Poe cursed, he had known it. "We need to get them off that ship."

"Uh, guys." Finn pointed up at the ship. It seemed to have pitched downwards towards the planet suddenly, but was still outside of the atmosphere as far as they could tell. "It looks like the ship lost power, it could be dead up there."

"Let's scan it and find out. We need to get our ship back out of the city, I can slip in and get it."

"I will come with you." Rose volunteered, "You always need someone to watch your back."

"Great, keep in contact, find out what's happening with that ship and we'll come up with a plan to get our friends back."

* * *

Rey's head ached from where it had slammed into the wall as she slid away from Rika. Blinking away the spots in her vision, she saw Kylo rush up the incline, lightsaber in hand. A few storm troopers entered the room, struggling with the new angle and shot at Kylo. This wasn't just one rebellious apprentice, this was a full blown coup. Rika was fighting him with two lightsabers, Rey's blue one and what must be her own red one.

A red haired man followed the foot soldiers with a gun of his own and pointed it at Kylo. Instinctively, Rey threw her hand out and threw him away from the room. The soldiers didn't seem to notice her at all. Rika was yelling at them and trying to get them to fire at her, but Kylo was taking up too much of her energy. Focusing more, she blasted the soldiers away the same way she had the red haired man.

But one shot managed to hit its target. The laser hit Kylo in the shoulder and forced him back. Rika took this moment of weakness and snuck under his guard and quickly severed his arm from his body. Kylo let out a scream of rage and pain and Rey felt the reverberations through the Force. Rika was blasted back, Kylo lost his footing and went tumbling back down the floor.

Something in the engines kicked in and the ship started righting itself. Rey went over to him. His arm was gone above the elbow, the smell of burnt flesh was strong in her nose. He looked deathly pale and his breath was labored. He looked up at her, his eyes dark, "Ben." She whispered.

"Leave me." He ordered. He picked up his lightsaber and pressed it into her hand, "Just go."

There were a hundred things she could have done or said to him in that moment, but she knew he was right. If she stayed on this ship longer she would die, he would live to fight another day, this was his ship after all. She took off running.

* * *

There was no one in the city any more, even the storm troopers seemed to have abandoned it. Poe and Rose made it back to their ship easily and unharrassed. Rose had been keeping up commentary on what was going on with the Star Destroyer while he kept an eye on the ground. Rose said they were having some kind of engine problem and then babbled off a lot of advanced mechanical nonsense.

Poe fired up the engines and Rose flipped on the comm system to the sounds of Finn yelling at them to get off the planet. They looked up and saw that the ship had taken a very dramatic pitch downward and the fritzy engines were working again as the ship flew towards the surface. Poe cursed, their friends were still on the ship. Rose was talking quickly with Finn and he wasn't paying attention, he was just flying. Rose hit him several times to get his attention, "Finn talked to Rey, they found escape pods, all we have to do is find them."

Relief filled his being as he let out a whoop of joy. He switched the comms to hail the ship, "This is Commander Poe Dameron of The Resistance, and I just wanted to say one final go to hell."

* * *

The storm troopers were firing on each other in the halls. Something was going on and she didn't have the full picture of it. She was hopelessly lost. So she did as she always did and relied on the Force to guide her. She dodged fighting stormtroopers and stepped over dead bodies. Lights flickered and it seemed like the engines failed for a second time. What was going on with this ship?

She went through an extremely damaged door and found herself in the control room. Everyone in here had been shot and was either dead or just about. There was nothing she could do for them but continue forward. Outside was her former home world, red and dusty. From here she could see pink ice at the poles, something she could have never imagined as a kid.

"Maia." She looked over and there he was. Ben Solo. He was slumped against a station and he was missing something. The arm was obvious, but something else had gone from his eyes.

It was conciousness. His body went limp and he slid further down onto the floor. Maia looked down at him, why couldn't she just leave him here? He had ruined her life and he deserved to die on this ship, but she couldn't do it.

 _"Maia, where are you?"_  Rey's voice sounded from every communication panel in the room. She must have done something to communicate with the whole ship.

She pushed the comm button, hopefully this would reach her, "I'm close to an escape pod, don't worry about me, just get off the ship." She had no idea if she was close to an escape pod, but Rey had to leave, she knew it. She scanned the pannel and saw one labled 'SWA', Ship Wide Announcement, she had seen Leia use it before. She flipped it and repeated her statement.

" _I'm going to try and contact our ship then I'm getting off. Get to an escape pod soon."_

The others, the Resistance. She looked back down at Ben. They wouldn't be safe as long as he was alive, and he was still alive. Without a strong leader like him, the First Order would fall into chaos and then the Resistance could rebuild the galaxy. But she couldn't do it, she couldn't kill him, that wasn't how their story was going to end.

The Force guided her to flip switches and set the navigation to down. He was finally waking up just as the pitch of the ship pointed down.

_"This is Commander Poe Dameron of The Resistance, and I just wanted to say one final go to hell."_

Her heart clenched, Poe. She couldn't leave him in silence, so she pushed the comm button, "I'm sorry Poe."

_"Maia? What are you doing?"_

She engaged the thrusters and Ben woke up, "Murder/suicide is not how I pictured this ending." His voice was strained as he tried to pull himself off the floor.

"I love you Flybird, touch every star for me." She turned the comm off to silence Poe's yelling and walked over to Ben, the Force keeping her steady as she pulled him off the floor. She put his arm around her shoulder and stood him up.

The planet was approaching fast and the man beside her, her old friend, looked at her and asked, "Are you sure about this?"

"It will turn out for the best." She wiped at her eye with her free hand, "It will be fine."


	18. Chapter 18

One Year Later

Rey had her feet up on the console of the Falcon, some new wave Beltran music Finn had sent her was playing through the ship. He was very into music now that he had time to figure out his hobbies outside of being a soldier. She had taken off in the Falcon without Chewie for awhile. It had been a year to the day that the Star Destroyer had crashed on Teranai 5, destroying the algea farms and the main source of income for the majority of the inhabitants. The Teranians had either left to become refugees or stayed to try and make something of their red planet without the Dennon wine trade.

In-fighting had left the First Order powerless and disenfranchised a majority of the galaxy under their rule so a few months ago, the Resistance had driven the remaining ships to the outer rim and was beginning to restablish democracy in the galaxy.

Rey felt uniquely alone in her grief for Maia and Ben. She had tried to talk to Poe about it, but either he wans't around or he just brushed her off. She supposed he was dealing in his own way. But she would feel better if she had someone who understood.

When they arrived back at the base, Leia had cried and held her and they had talked. But that had been the end of it, Leia had moved on, she was the face of the Republic Reborn and she had to keep mvoing forward. They held a funeral for Maia, named a ship after her despite Poe's protests about both, and everyone moved foward. Rose, Finn and Tel were all busy with their respective jobs but it warmed Rey's heart to see them at dinner sometimes, absorbed in each other and not worrying about the outside world.

She had been having dreams lately, of a small house on a plain with tall green grass. She knew her dreams meant something now, and she spent hours meditating on it but nothing ever came to her. She had talked to Leia about it, but Leia didn't know much about the Force so she wasn't much help. The Jedi books she had stolen weren't much help either. It took a lot of deciphering to even get a kernel of wisdom from them.

It all came together in the most mundane of ways. She was eating breakfast, Jessika Pava, a friend of Poe's had taken it upon herself in the last year to be Rey's friend too. Rey liked Jessika, she was bright and funny. That morning, Jessika was talking about taking a break from her job.

"I either want to go home and see my family, but that also kind of feels like work. Or I could take an actual vacation." Jessika showed her a list of planets, "All of these places are really cheap in the off season and as long as I get to get away, I don't care how nice it is."

The two girls looked through a few of them. Rey mentioned that she had never been on vacation before and Jessika gasped, "Well I guess that means you are going with me. This will be fun. Lets go somewhere urban, we can tear up the town."

"What town are we tearing up this time?" Finn sat down next to her and nudged her shoulder. Rose and Tel joined them and Tel teased Rose and Finn about their destroying towns hobby. Rose laughed with him and tucked into her breakfast.

"Where's Poe?" Jessika asked, taking her hand off the screen they had been looking at, leaving it completely in Rey's hands.

Finn shook his head, "Where else, fixing his baby up. I talked to him but he seems pretty invested."

Rey was curious about urban cities, but she clicked one that said it was a mountainous planet. People there did all kinds of dangerous ice and rock related sports, that could be fun. She looked at another, this one was the opposite, it boasted relaxation and breath taking views and spicy food. She swiped through pictures, there were just so many planets out there. She put down the screen and talked with her friends.

As they finished up the meal, Rose and Finn said goodbye, they were leaving for a few weeks with Leia. "Oh I'm going too." Jessika said, "I'm your escort! This will be fun." She pointed at the screen, "Pick out a few places while I'm gone, I will see when I can set aside some time."

Rey went through her normal training routine. She was thinking about finding some kids strong in the Force and training them like she hadn't been. She wasn't a Jedi, she could come up with something new for them to be, that's what Maia would have wanted.

After training, she thought about working on the Falcon but she did that most days, so instead she picked up the screen again. She continued looking through these planets she had never been. She hadn't travelled nearly as much as she had wanted to in the last year. Maybe this would be a new start for her.

But then, there it was, the house on the plain, the one that haunted her dreams. It was advertised for a small planet, it's biggest draw was a a plant that produced glowing flowers that floated down the many rivers that covered the planet. She looked up where the planet was and it wasn't too far out, a short ride and she would finally figure out what her dream meant.

She went to find Finn, but then remembered he was off world with Leia, Rose and Jessika. She wasn't close enough with Tel to ask him to come with her. She spotted a newly painted orange and black x-wing and heard the quiet sounds of BB-8 and Poe having a discussion.

"Poe?"

He looked up from what he was doing and smiled softly at her, "Hey Rey, what's up?"

"I need your help." She sat down across from him and told him about her dreams and how she had dreamed the coordinates. "I don't want to go alone, would you come with me?"

Poe looked surprised but nodded, "Give me an hour."

He met her back at the Falcon, out of his flight suit and into his normal clothes. She noticed he had fixed his hair differently, more like he used to a year ago. He seemed nervous, but pleasant, more pleasant than he had been in the last year.

They sat in the cockpit quietly as the Falcon hurtled towards their destination, a small sparsely populated mid rim planet, a vacation planet for most of the standard year but relatively empty at this time of year.

"Poe, I know you don't want to talk about her, but I just want you to know, I'm here for you, I understand."

Poe looked like he wanted to say something to her, but he changed his mind and turned back to face space as the dropped out of hyperdrive.

They landed in a field, the green grass from her dream was brown and crackled under their feet. There was a slight chill in the air and Rey could see the faint trace of her breath in the air. In the distance was a small house, the same one from her dream and the travel brochure. There was a line of squat trees behind the house cutting through the golden brown field.

"To the house?" Poe asked.

Rey nodded and pushed some of the grass out of her way to start a path. But before they could take more than a few steps, a figure rose up out of the grass, swathed in a brown shawl, with golden hair that gleamed in the dim light. They were a fair distance away, but Rey knew it was her.

Poe seemed to know too. He stiffened a little and took a few hesitant steps past Rey. Maia ran forward, cutting through the grass and throwing her arms around him.

Rey smiled, she had seen this before, when she had first seen them at the Resistance Base after Starkiller. Poe didn't seem to care that she had faked her death, he just held her. Maia was talking but her words were muffled as she pressed her face into his neck and cried.

She was going to wait her turn to hug Maia, but she realized that might take awhile.

But, if Maia was alive, that could mean. . .

Rey was drawn to the trees behind the house. The grass was shorter here and the trees were lining a large creek, not big enough to jump across but easily swimmable. Floating in the water was a single, small, many petaled flower. It glowed brightly as it was brought out of the water by a hulking figure in brown.

Ben Solo looked very different than how he had looked on the ship. He still had one arm, his sleeve tied up near his shoulder. His hair was longer and pulled back, revealing his eyes, no longer dark with anger. "I see you got our message."

"Why- how?"

"Same as you, escape pod. I've let it all go, Rey. I think Maia has too, it just took some time." He held out the flower to her. "It's the last one of the season."

She reached for his hand.


End file.
